EMP (discontinued)
by Piggon
Summary: Chris comes to Mobius after 6 years, but when he finds his friends he didn't expect them to have changed as much as they have, especially one in particular. The team has split. Everyone and everything is different now, but can they stop it from falling apart? This story is discontinued. It is just all over the place and I don't like it, I might rewrite it one day though.
1. Chapter 1

EMP

 **Hello! If you're reading this, THANK YOU SO MUCH! This is my first fic so please don't bite my head off in reviews, constructive criticism is completely welcome though! When Chris came to Mobius in Sonic-x I didn't really like how everyone was the same age, it means that Tails is still really cute though, so I can't really complain much. I thought one day what would happen if when Chris came to mobius, it had been 6 years since he had seen them like on earth? This is what it might have been like if this was true, well what I think would have been cool. I'd like to thank Tailsisreal, Oceanera12, Green Raccoon, Revelis Charm and Stephenm8070 for inspiring me to write, your fanfictions are amazing! Thank you Misue, it's really nice to be a newbie with you, thanks for the support!**

 **Weeel, without further ado….**

 **Italics mean thoughts, bold italics in normal speech means that word has emphasis.**

 **Ages:**

 **Tails: 14**

 **Amy:18 (if I put her in)**

 **knuckles: 22 (wow, he's pretty old for an Echidna now)**

 **Sonic: 21**

 **Chris: 18**

* * *

 **Chapter 1**

 _I'm finally going to see them again... how long has it been?_ Chris Thorndike stood in front of his teleporter, he was having second thoughts about his plan. _What if they've changed? What if I can't get back? My parents will be worried sick! And Helen… No. They will understand, they know how much I've wanted this and how long I've waited... But_ _what if my friends don't?_ He took one last look around his lab and swallowed down the growing lump in his throat. _It's just the nerves speaking, it's going to be fine. If I know them well, they will see why I've done this and they'll be fine. It's going to be fine._ He was going to miss everyone, but deep down he knew he had to do this. Chuck would most likely find a way to trace him anyway, and when he did Chris was in for the worlds longest lecture, but it would be worth it just to see his friends again.

Making up his mind, Chris buried his hand in his trouser pocket, he fished out a letter, and placed it on the workbench. The last thing he wanted was his parents from sending a search party after him, that would be completely uneventful and most likely end up with him being presumed dead. Hopefully this letter would explain enough.

And say goodbye.

It pained him not to go do it in person, he had no idea how long he'd be there for or how he'd get back. But it was safer this way. Sadder, but safer.

When Sonic and the others left, it hit the entire family hard how they'd never see them again. It took a long time to readjust to the normal life they had led before the day he fished the blue blur out of the pool, they'd gotten used to the thrilling adventures that seemed to follow the Mobians wherever they went, to flying planes through the city, to chasing down robots, to hunting magical gemstones whilst competing with an evil villain. It was obvious that they'd go back to that life in a heartbeat. But if he told them where he was going they wouldn't let him do it alone. He didn't want them to get hurt because of him, the portal could potentially have some unknown side affects since he had never tested it on a human before.

He could never live with the guilt of mutilating or even _**killing**_ his own family.

The portal started to spark, looking more like a whirl pool then the gently throbbing purple it was at first; now was his last chance to walk through before it closed in on itself.

He took it without hesitation.

* * *

 _Run_. All that was going through his brain was that one word. _Run for your life and don't slow down_. A laser skimmed past one of his over-sized ear dishes. _Scratch that; run for your life and don't get hit._

"Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho! I've almost got you, you annoying little pest!" Dr Eggman's voice blared out of the built-in speaker in one of his minion robots chasing Tails.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that!" _Oh god I'm doomed._

"Oh yes I would."

"Nope! Wrong again Eggman!" _I'm totally going to get fried._

"I'll think you'll find-"

"You know, for an evil genius, you would have thought that by now you would have noticed that you never catch us. I think you're lying about your IQ Dr!" Tails smirked. _Yep good move Tails; make the evil maniac with the robot army angry_.

"SHUT UP YOU ANNOYING LITTLE BRAT!"

"Na. I'm gonna try and annoy you some more first, and boy is it easy to bug you." _Why in chaos's name won't I just stop talking?_

"JUST SHUT IT!"

"Nope. Not gonna happen." _I wish it would. Tails, you're just getting deeper into this mess!_

"WHY WON'T YOU J-"

"Bla"

"-JUST-"

"Bla, bla, bla."

"STOP-"

"Bla de bla de bla."

"ARG! ROBOTS ATTACK!"

Responding to his command, the swarm of Eggman robots sent a barrage of lasers at the poor kitsune. He dodged, but they hit the trees behind him, setting them aflame and bringing them to the ground. Now he was cornered in a semicircle of robots with guns on one side and flaming logs on the other, the chance of him escaping unharmed fizzled down to a 'could be possible' instead of an 'extremely likely', with it melted his confidence.

Tails wished someone would miraculously appear and help him, hopefully in the form of a blue hedgehog that would save him from becoming grilled fox. At least, not by the hands of Eggman, he'd probably save the job for himself.

"Oh ho ho ho ho, I don't hear any snarky remarks now! This is perfect! You can't get out of this one now can you? Your precious Sonic isn't here to save you, now is he? I thought you were _ **Brothers**_!" Eggman's obnoxious voice went high and sarcastic at the end, "I guess he doesn't care about you anymore, you're just a shadow following him around everywhere. You couldn't even save yourself! I bet you've done nothing in the time you've been gone! Ueless! And sloppy."

Tails looked at the ground, clutching his arm. Eggman grinned, he knew he had touched a sore subject.

 _So they haven't gotten over it yet, that must be why I haven't seen Tails recently. I can use this…_ "What's wrong? Oh, did I hurt your feelings? I could just possibly let you live if you forgive me." His voice devoid of concern. He contorted the robots face trying to make it look apologetic but failed miserably. "I guess not. Well then, I guess I'll just have to OBLITERATE YOU! Ho, ho, ho, ho!" A series of clicking sounds signalled them loading their missile cannons and guns, the odds were not exactly fair on the poor kitsune. Tails could dodge lasers relatively easily, well a certain amount, not all, but homing missiles even Sonic took a while to shake off. He didn't stand much of a chance since the smoke was getting thicker.

 **(A/N: In Sonic X, Sonic doesn't have trouble with missiles really, but I thought that over 6 years Eggman might have stepped up his game enough to challenge them all a bit.)**

 _Not good. I need to get out of here._ "I'm sorry, but I've already been out to long. I really must be going before Sonic kills **_both_** of us!" He said with a small sheepish smile plastered on his face. He wasn't joking. Sonic hadn't let him out for more than an hour since _**'the incident'**_ , and even then he wouldn't let him go alone. If he knew that he had been fighting with Eggman he would flip.

Tails was sick of it, he was old enough to take care of himself and skilled enough to take on enemies singlehandedly, even if it may take a bit longer than the speedster. And so, he snuck out and ended up here; cornered by an evil tyrant.

Sonic would not be pleased.

He knew that he wasn't, the nagging feeling at the beck of his head proved it. He wished his brother would put a little more trust in him, he wasn't a kid anymore and didn't need Sonic checking up on him all the time like he was trying to do. Didn't all of the years he had spent fighting with him mean anything? He'd been doing this for over half his life, shouldn't that show he could take care of himself? Another wave of lasers broke him out of his chain of thought and snapped back into reality. Reality sucked.

"You know, it's rude to zone out whilst I'm trying to destroy you! You might as well not even be here!" The evil genius was evidently ticked off. I guess when you only have your own mechanical creations to talk to, you take it rather personally when actual organic people don't listen. It was a wonder how he had managed to hold onto a scrap of his sanity over these past few years, it wouldn't be much longer until he lost it completely.

Recently he had become more erratic in his attacks, his danger levels rising in each time, it was only a matter of time before he became such a threat that G.U.N would break out the nukes (or any type of bomb really). He was already the biggest threat to Mobius alive, being overly power hungry and intelligent enough to outwit some of the smartest scientists there were to offer, usually Tails would be itching for a chance to stop him, but right now wasn't the best time.

He tried running past the wall of foes only to be blocked by the one shaped as the doctor, its wide stature filling the remaining escape route available. (Yes, he was as big headed enough to make a copy of himself to talk for him in battle, you didn't think he'd still come in person?)

"Oh, ho, oh! Going so soon? We're only getting started!"

"Yes actually. I can't stay and battle today, it's seriously not a good time." Tails started to back away, this couldn't end well. "Sonic wants me back _ **right now**_. I'm already in big trouble as it is, I really can't do this." He tried flying over them but the tallest one grabbed him by the foot and roughly threw him back into the centre.

"Oh no my little friend, I don't think you'll get away that easy, oh, ho, ho, ho!" The speakers boomed, Eggman was enjoying this way too much to be healthy, "Resistance is futile, my droids have processed all your moves, they know what you'll do next, you can't escape. I will destroy you and all your worthless friends, you're too weak to save them. You're only a pathetic freak, a mistake, a mutant." Eggman's voice sneered, laced with venom. Those words were a complete mistake on the human's part.

A piece of advice: never mention those words in front of Tails. A year ago you'd most likely have gotten away with it with nothing more than a few harsh words, but now... him+ trigger words= you going kablooey. Well, too late now.

Tails scrunched his eyes closed and his breathing became deep and laboured, his anger was starting to boil over. Flashes of memories ran past his mind, adding to the pot of negativity. No words could describe how badly he wanted to just rip the moustache off the obese human at that moment.

Unfortunately, the real doctor was lounging around in his chair miles away, so he couldn't, that was the cherry on top of the cake for the human. The madman loved the feeling of invincibility. He felt so untouchable in his lair, like he was inside an unbreakable bubble protected by his unbeatable minions, nothing could penetrate it.

He shouldn't have gotten so comfortable.

Tails opened his eyes, his pupils shrinking to pinpricks and his irises darkening to almost navy. He glared at the robot blocking his path, seeing nothing but red, letting out a feral growl as he clenched his fists so tight the fabric almost tore. His tails crackled with energy, forming deadly spikes that could slice through solid metal with one swipe. Eggman and his 'army' had no time to process what hit them. Tails slid underneath the biggest and pushed up off the ground, cutting cleanly through the middle. The two halves split and crushed the surrounding robots on either side, now it was the Eggman look-a-like's turn to back way. The remaining bots formed a protective barrier in front of it, not that it made any difference. Tails turned to face them and started to walk slowly towards them, eyes and tails flashing dangerously. In a blink of an eye all that was left was scraps of metal, except 1.

Tails stood there clutching the throat of the Eggman robot in the middle of the pile, its arms flailing in an attempt of freeing itself. It looked pitiful to say the least.

"Don't you dare call me that again, you overweight ball of lard, or next time this will be the real you." he crushed the robot's head and dropped it to the ground in a crumpled heap, the speakers making an ear-splitting screech, causing him to clap his hands over his ears. The energy emitting from his tails disappeared and his eyes became normal again as his anger melted into confusion, he felt strangely dizzy. _it's nothing, just the noise_. Flattening his ears helped block it out, that made him feel a bit better. _See, just the noise. Now get moving Tails_. Just as he was about to leave a laser hit near his foot and he looked up to see black silhouettes of flying robots.

"Oh man. That can only mean… reinforcements. I don't have time for this..." Immediately he started to run, causing him to miss one detail in his haste.

The noise was only just fading, yet the speakers had already been crushed.

It wasn't them…

* * *

 **This was edited on the 2nd January 2019, please tell me of any plot holes or mistakes. I will edit other chapters on other days though so you can also tell me for any remaining chapters if you want.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Ok, about last chapter, you know how I said that italics meant thoughts, well something went weird and changed all things that were into normal writing, I've edited it now to try and fix it, hopefully it's ok now. I'll try and remember to correct that problem in this one before I post, Heh. (rubs back of head Tails style) In this chap Chris is gonna reappear, I don't really like him so his bits tend to get a bit small. yes, Tails gets special treatment because he's the best (in my opinion). This wasn't originally supposed to be a Tails fic, I just ended up writing mostly about him, but I warn you, I'm slightly evil to my favourites.**

 **Tails: yelp! Please don't kill me!**

 **Me: I can't make any promisses (grins evily)**

 **Tails: ARRRGGGHH! (flies away)**

 **I don't own anything in this fic, I doubt that ill bring any of my own characters in either.**

* * *

 **Chapter 2**

"Urg, where am I?" Chris sat up and looked around, rubbing his aching head, "Is this mobius?" his vision was all blurry. He suspected that the sea of green blobs surrounding what was possibly a clearing were trees, and he was sitting on a tall grey structure. What he wanted to know was why it was so remote, if it was remote. He still had no idea where he was, what planet or dimension he was on. He just hoped that wherever he was was inhabited by some kind of living creature who could help him, preferably mobians. All he knew was that it was nothing like station square. it was so green, so private, so… peaceful. KABOOM! Ok scratch that last one. "What on earth was that?" Chris exclaimed. He immediately clapped his hands to his mouth and froze to the spot. He had never thought of the possibility of the lifeforms being hostile! _Ok. Stay still and don't say anything. If you don't move, they won't see you._ yep, he had definitely watched one to many dinosaur movies. The ground shook a bit, almost knocking him off his feet. _You've done nothing against them, they won't attack you._ well that was true, they didn't bother attacking him. What he didn't know was: that the 'hostile lifeforms' were actually robots, they were already trying to destroy someone else, and that staying still didn't stop that someone else from seeing him anyway…

* * *

A lone fox ran into the clearing a huge swarm of shining bees following, he stole a glance backwards and smirked. An onlooker may have said he was overconfident. A friend would have said he was stupid. But he would have said he had an 92% chance of winning and an 8% chance of getting his butt whupped. Odds he could work with _. Show no fear. Show no weakness_. Eyeing his enemies dangerously, he suddenly stopped and got into his battle stance, daring them to make the first move. One bot took the bait and flew forward and started to circle the lone kitsune, its stinger poised to strike- not that it got the chance to. Tails gazed up at it lazily and yawned. If this bot thought he had a chance of even scratching him, it had another thing coming. With one swift strike from his foot, said robot's head went flying deep into the wood sending up a flock of flickies. Seeking vengeance for their fallen comrade, the rest of the bee bots flew forward and swarmed over Tails, but like the first, their attacks were short-lived. Spinning his namesakes, tails took to the skies and shot up through the top of the swarm, smashing a pathway through his enemies. Trying to redeem the upper hand, the bees shot plasma balls at the fox, who dodged them all in turn and deflected them with his tails back at the bees. They didn't know what hit them before they exploded, bits of metal smashing into the earth and kicking up dirt. These bots were rookies compared to him, they had most likely only been made this morning.

"come on! That all you got?" Tails stuck his tongue out with his fingers in his ears and blew raspberries at the offending robots. Childish, but satisfying. Officially irked, the 4 remaining bee bots charged a giant plasma ball, one so big and powerful that it could disintegrate a solid concrete wall, Tails wouldn't stand a chance if he was hit. _Maybe if I destroyed them before they shoot, it might just cancel out? Yeah, let's try that_. Knowing that he didn't have much time to act, he curled up into a ball and started preparing for a spin dash to end this quickly- which it did. His spin dash shredded the opposition- quite literally- the pieces smashing into the ground and piles up, that was effective, but unfortunately had an unintended effect on the plasma ball which just shot off towards the shrine. "Oh man. Knuckles is going to kill me!" His eyes followed the glowing ball in horror as it got closer and closer to destroying the only structure for miles, "Well, at least the master emerald isn't there anymore so knuckles isn't- wait. Is that? Oh god." The black silhouette of a person caught his eye. That person was going to die, and it was all his fault! "Not if I can help it!" Tails ran as fast as he could to the steps of the shrine, he was going to save them if it was the last thing he did! The plasma was getting dangerously close now, Tails could feel it singing the tips of his fur with its white-hot energy. He needed to act fast. "Look out!" He screamed as he flung himself at the figure just in time to push it away from the spot that the plasma hit seconds later. They were both sent tumbling down the steps, a great screaming ball of fur, huge chunks of stone falling after them. Bits of rock dug into his sides and bashed his head, but Tails wouldn't let go. Others came first. He stuck a hand out and snagged on a large bit of stone, drawing blood as the jagged edge dug into his hand, stopping their descent and allowing him to uncurl. Propping himself up, he stood swaying slightly, _Sonic wouldn't let this get to him, so neither are you. Don't show weakness. Shaking it off_ , Tails glanced at the gasping… whatever it was… he'd fallen with. He bent down and tapped its shoulder, "Are you ok?" he asked. The person sat up and blinked a few times.

"Yeah I'm fine."

 _Ok, it understands my language and replied, that's a good sign._

"My vision's a bit blurry, but it was already like that when I got here, other than that, I'm fine as I could be after rolling down a set of stairs." He continued, "thank you for asking… mostly yellow blob." The thing stood up with no problem and brushed the dirt off its jeans, (Tails had broken most of the fall and so (like always) ended up worse) tying to work out where he was, judging by the confused expression, it didn't help.

"Erm, if you don't mind my asking, where are we, what planet are we on and what are you? I haven't no idea of what I'm looking at right now." He asked.

"I have no idea what I'm looking at either. You don't look like anyone I've seen before. What are you?"

"I-I'm a human, I'm not from around here."

"ok, that makes more sense. You must be new to go wandering around this place, real dangerous these days, but I guess you must not know where anything is yet. Well, we're on Angel Island, this is Mobius-" the human gave an inward squeal when he heard this. "-I'm a Mobian fox and-" he was interrupted by a stone pillar crashing down behind him, "-and I'm in so much trouble! Oh my god they're gonna kill me!" he turned his worried gaze back to the human, "I'm sorry, but really need to go! Try not to get in any more trouble, I don't want to have to save you from a near death experience again." The human just stared at him, well what he thought was him anyway.

"You can't just leave me here! You literally just told me it's dangerous! I can't see a thing, how am I supposed to defend myself?!"

"you're right…" Tails snapped his fingers, "Why don't you come back with me? I'm pretty sure I can help you get your sight back in no time!"

"Well… you did save me so seem trustworthy… and I can't stay here… so I guess so."

 _Well that's 1 problem fixed, only 999 to go._ Thought Tails.

"How are you going to help my eyes though? If it's glasses I'm out. My parents would have a fit if I came back wearing glasses, I can't go back hurt in the slightest or they'll freak out. Big time." the human had absolutely no idea who he was talking to a child prodigy. Tails had no intention of giving glasses to anyone, in fact they hadn't even been invented yet, he was the only one on the planet so far to create something to improve your sight. Only his friends knew about this yet, but he was planning to share it with hospitals soon.

"I have my ways. Hold on!" he said as he gripped the arm of the other and sped off into the woods…

* * *

 **Well, that's chapter 2, I'm sorry of it sucks. please review, I only have 1 which is kind of sad- thanks for that Misue by the way.**

 **Tails: You do know Misue has no idea who any of us are, they haven't watched Sonic-x.**

 **Me: All the more surprise for them (pouts)**

 **Tails: Seriously. T_T**

 **Me: Be quiet or I can make your life misery.**

 **Tails: AAAAGGHHH! (flies away)**

 **like I said, I am slightly evil to my favourite characters. Is that weird or does anyone else do that? Anyhoo, next chap is mostly describing places and stuff so there may not be a fight scene for a bit, sorry.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello, I'm back again. In this chapter I'm gonna start calling Chris by his actual name, it's hard calling someone "the human" when you are dying to call him by their real name. They still both have no idea who each other are, they wont for at least a chapter yet.**

 **Tails: Hu? Why not?**

 **Me: Because.**

 **Chris: Yeah, why?**

 **Me: Don't you get involved as well.**

 **Chris: It's a free country dude.**

 **Tails: Yeah! And bring Sonic in, he needs the attention.**

 **Me: BOTH OF YOU STOP OR I WILL DROP YOU OFF A CLIFF!**

 **Chris: AAAGGHHH! (sprints away)**

 **Tails: I can fly you know. T_T**

 **Me: Not for long. (grins like a psycho)**

 **Tails: AAGGHH (flies away)**

 **Weeeel, here it is.**

* * *

 **Chapter 3**

Tails ran through the woods at top speed with a wailing Chris dangling behind him by the arm, sliding under roots, jumping over rocks and off trees, trying in a desperate attempt to get into to the hideout as quickly as he could before Sonic came out _. Ok, almost there! Just over this and…_ he flew over a boulder and kicked a rock at the foot, it slid forward and revealed a tunnel leading straight down for who knows how long. If I was there, I would have said it looked like a black hole had just opened through space and time, but unfortunately this analogy would be lost on both the fox and human for the simple reasons that one couldn't see it in the first place and the other knew better. Tails dug his feet into the undergrowth, building up a huge pile of mud beneath his feet which slowed him to a stand-still, only now did he notice the sorry state his companion was in, the poor human was shaking like a leaf! Tails felt a pang of guilt,

"I'm so sorry! I forgot that other people aren't used to going that fast! Man, I'm such an idiot!" he started to thump his head with his palm hoping it might knock some sense into it.

"I-I'm fine, just a bit shocked that's all," Chris stammered, "don't beat yourself up for it, I'm perfectly ok" he hastily added once he worked out what Tails was literally doing just that, judging by the way that the yellow blob didn't stop hitting itself it didn't look like it took that as a good reason to. Concerned for the health of his saviour, he grabbed their arms and pinned them to their sides.

"it's nothing to worry about, I'm fine. What I'm worried about now is you! Stop mauling yourself already!" he could feel the fox's arm vibrating slightly under his hands, he pulled them back, that wasn't natural. "Hey, is your arm ok? It feels kinda weird."

"It's not something I want to talk about let's go inside" Tails hastily cut in, before he could question further, Tails caught Chris's arm in an iron grip once again and jumped in the opening. _That was close._ Their worlds were suddenly enveloped in darkness as the sickening feeling of dropping rose in the duo's stomachs, Chris's lunch almost followed suit. Being thrown down a pitch-black hole without any warning did not settle well with the brown-haired human, or any human for that matter, he was just about to voice his concerns when he plunged deep into a massive hill of leaves obviously put there to break the fall of anyone entering, not the most effective way, but it still worked to an extent. A leaf fluttered down and landed on his nose, making him sneeze loudly, the noise echoing down the tunnel. This was nothing like what he would have expected his first day on Mobius would be like, he had imagined Sonic running up to him and flashing him a thumbs up, Tails landing the Tornado-x and grinning, Knuckles standing with his arms crossed looking grumpy, Cream and cheese jumping around and Amy chasing Sonic brandishing her hammer. Instead he was half blind, almost blown up, thrown down some steps and then yanked down a hole, not the best time of his life. Nope he wasn't enjoying this.

"What in the name of- what was that for?!" Tails didn't answer him but instead flashed him a cheeky smirk, took hold of his wrist and ran- slower this time- down the twisting tunnels using his night- vision to dodge roots jutting out of the walls, Chris of course had no idea where he was… again. _Maybe it wasn't the best idea to go with this guy._ He thought, the lack of response to his questions was slightly suspicious to him. Eventually the dark of the tunnel morphed into a large hallway with doors on each side and another room at the end with an open one. Tails silently snuck down to the middle door and stepped inside, the newly added light revealing a white tiled and wood panelled room. It had a desk in the corner littered with blueprints and half-built inventions, 3 hospital beds, a sink, and a large metal box built into the wall (reasons for its existence unknown). The whole place looked like someone with OCD had just went on a cleaning rampage, except the far wall which seemed like the OCD enthusiast has been in a struggle with the owner of the room, lost, rolled on the floor for a bit, got tangled in wires, tried to untangle them, admitted defeat, and crawled out if the pile. Yes, it was that bad. Attached to said wires were a group of computers, not new ones mind you, the kind with tiny screens and big, clunky frames.

 **(A/N: if you don't know what I'm talking about, your parents should probably know about these)**

Resources were meagre these days, computers hadn't been changed since they had been first built here, there simply weren't enough materials that hadn't been taken or spoilt by Eggman.

"Welcome to my lab/ medical ward! The latter in your case," Tails hung his jacket and goggles up on a hook by the door and lead his patient to one of the beds and sat him down, "Now, what can I do for those eyes of yours…" Taking a light from his belt, he shined it in Chris's eyes, the reactions of the pupils seemed to mean something to him as he quickly decided what medicine he needed and flew to a hidden draw on the roof that popped out by the wall. It was to empty for his liking.

"I need to give you these eye drops and this pill, you should be fine!" he said, "Just keep them closed for a bit or it will sting like crazy!" he gave Chris the medicine and sealed the tube back into the cupboard. _Well I made it this far without Sonic finding out, maybe he didn't notice?_ He knew that he had no chance of that being the case, which was right.

"Where could the kid have got to?" Sonic's muffled voice drifted in from next door. He was surprised that he could hear it through the thick concrete of the wall _, Wow Sonic must really be yelling right now, did this really mess him up that bad?_

"He's not answering his commlink!" Tails gazed over at his worksurface, his commlink was sat on top of a pile of books on the side. He bit his lip. "What if he got caught by Eggman, Knuckles? I can't lose him again, I- I just-" Sonic burst into hysterical bawling before he could finish, "I- (sob) I can't (sob) l-let him (sob) down (sob) again, (sob) I h-have to (sob) f-find h-him (snuffle)."

"Don't worry Sonic, he's tough." Tails had to press his ear to the wall to hear Knuckles, that was a good sign. Usually Tails was the voice of reason, but at least Knuckles was trying to fill his shoes… "Maybe cooping him inside for months on end wasn't the best way to keep him safe, you know how restless he gets, you're not being very good at this whole 'keep everyone safe' thing when it's not on the battlefield are you?" …He was doing a horrible job of it. Knuckles felt extremely awkward, he definitely wasn't a particularly sensitive person and was desperate to get away from the fragile hedgehog "look Sonic, if Eggman had him he would have made sure that we knew. Calm it. I'm worried for the kid to you know, I'm not crying." With that, he escaped onto the hallway and into his room, leaving the unstable Sonic on his own before his own protective wall broke down or he made things even worse. Tails felt extremely guilty for sneaking out, if he had known that he would cause Sonic such anguish he would have sacrificed his freedom in a heartbeat. He made his decision.

"Erm, do you mind if I step out for a bit?" he said sheepishly to his patient. They had obviously not heard the conversation, a good thing too or questions would have been asked.

"sure, but I forgot to ask-" Ok, questions were asked anyway, but now Tails had an excuse not to answer.

"Okthankyoudon'ttouchanythingwhilsti'mgonejustsittightplease!" Chris wasn't even given the chance to finish his question before the fox had already left the room.

"-what's your name." sighing, he scrunched his eyes tighter and laid down. This was getting irritating now, he didn't want to make them mad, but If this fox didn't give him answers soon he would look for them.

* * *

 **I'm not sure how regularly I'm gonna update after this chapter, hopefully I'll manage every other day but it takes me a while to edit. I pre edited up to this one so it didn't take so long but I can't say the same for the rest. I hope that you carry on reading though once I do, (wink wink). Next chapter ended up a bit fluffy, its main focus is basically Tails and Sonic brotherly stuff. It's not really my cup of tea so it may sound a bit forced, just a warning.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Ok, this chapter waffles on a bit. It's basically just brotherly fluff between Tails and Sonic, Amy is mentioned but I'm not sure how much of a part she'll have in this story, yep, again not a big fan of her. I apologise if this chapter is a bit rushed or bad, I found it a bit hard to write stuff like this without getting slightly off the point.**

 **Sonic: I hope you made me dignified, I'm all about dignity.**

 **Tails: S _ure_ you are (snickers)**

 **Sonic: Hey! Were you being sarcastic?**

 **Tails: Erm, no? (flies away)**

 **Sonic: W** **ell, what's the answer to the question?**

 **Me: Sonic, look at the first line and tell me that I'm making you 'dignified'.**

 **Sonic: Oh man!**

* * *

 **Chapter 4**

Sonic was a complete mess when Tails came. He had completely soaked his fur, (which If he wasn't in such a state he would have screamed at the prospect of) and was curled up on the light blue carpet letting out wet sobs. Tail's heart clenched at the sight of it. He had only seen his hero like this once in his life and hoped never to again, both times were his fault. Gradually he approached the quivering ball of quills, he didn't want to startle him, or he could end up in the hospital ward himself. This called for a gentle approach. Not bothering to turn the light on, he crept inside. When he got close enough, Tails knelt down and slowly eased Sonic's body onto his lap, trapping him in his embrace. He wished that it would shield them from the horrors of reality like the blue-blur had tried so hard to do for him, Tails wanted so badly just to soak up all the pain and sadness that his brother had inside him, to take it all away and see him smile again like he used to, to tell him that everything was going to be ok, to hold the weight that was so unfairly placed on him, even if it meant crushing himself under it, he would die for Sonic and everyone knew how seriously he took that. That's the role of the sidekick, right? To be there for the hero to take the blows so that they can get to the end and finish it. A bit bitter sounding I know, but that was the main reason why Tails ended up so beaten up after a battle and Sonic left practically unscathed compared, he didn't mind though, he wanted to make sure that they were safe, but right at this moment his best friend needed comforting, not protecting, this was the closest thing he could do to achieve all of those things.

"shhh, it's ok, it's ok. I'm here, it's ok." Tails whispered soothingly into his brother's triangular ear, as said hedgehog buried his face in his soft white chest fur and continued to cry, interlocking their arms and hugging him tighter causing Tails' face to turn scarlet. After about five minutes of this Sonic finally calmed down enough to pull away and wiped his face with his glove.

"I'm sorry for that (sniff), I just have a lot on my plate right now(sniff)" he said facing the other way, still not noticing who it was he had just soaked, he would have freaked if he had turned around and it had been Knuckles or, heaven forbid, _**Amy.**_

"No, if anyone needs to be sorry it's me. I-" At this point Sonic turned to the familiar voice, his bloodshot eyes widening as he realised who it was.

"TAILS?! Oh my- your're- grounded, alive… here!" _Ok breath, it wasn't them, my image is still stable._ He flung himself into Tails arms again and hugged him harder than he had previously thought he could, he only broke it when Tails started slapping him on the head, his face now less red then purple.

"-Sonic- can't- breath- gonna- pass- out-"

"heh, sorry got a bit overexcited!" Sonic let go letting Tails catch his breath before standing up and glaring at the kitsune. "WHAT IN CHAOS WERE YOU THINKING?! GO RUNNING OFF AND DON'T TELL ANYONE WHY DON'T YOU?!" he slapped the fox round the face, leaving a red mark where his hand made contact. Sky blue eyes fell to the floor, such an interesting carpet…

"I'm sorry…" Tails looked up, his face full of sadness and determination all rolled into one, a look only Tails was able to pull off, "But you have to understand! You have no idea what it feels like to have your life so brutally torn away from you, to try so hard to take it back but deep down you know that it will never come back, that it will never go back to normal!" by this point tears started to form in both their eyes, "That's why I went, that's why I fight, that's why I've been training every day for the last 6 months!" Sonic's face switched to one of complete surprise, "Did you seriously think that I would sit here like some discarded ornament pushed to the back of a mantelpiece? I don't want to be such a liability like I used to, I'm not the useless kit I once was. Please let me out, I need the sky so bad Sonic, it's like your running, or Amy's hammer or Knuckles… knuckles. I- I just-" Sonic stopped his speech by pulling him into a hug, causing Tails to jump from the sudden move but still returned it.

"you're right little bro," the hedgehog started to let loose his tears again, "I-I'm s-s-so s-sorry, I (gasp) d-don't know w-what (snuffle) t-hat's like, (sob) I-I just w-w-wanted to k-keep (sob) y-you s-safe." He stopped to compose himself, sighing he continued, "ever since… you know… I- I haven't been a good brother to you, I have locked you up from the world, you belong in the clouds, not underground. I hereby un-ground you, I should have done that a long time ago, I-I just didn't want you all alone out there. I'm sorry I ever doubted you."

"it's ok, I know what that feels like. But, erm, I wasn't 'alone' as such…" Tails pulled away but still avoided Sonic's eyes. "I- er- found someone, and they were hurt and couldn't see or defend themselves, they needed my help! So I kinda, sorta brought them back… next door…" Sonic facepalmed.

"why am I not surprised?"

"He's different, I felt it! He's been in contact with the emeralds before, I could feel it! He either has touched the emeralds or somehow absorbed some of the master emerald's lingering traces of energy, but the thing is that he isn't like us! He's not even from here! He literally asked what planet we're on! I had to take him back! I need to know why!" Sonic was really confused now, he had never heard of another planet with chaos energy, let alone chaos emeralds! The whole thing smelt fishy, but his own curiosity outpowered any suspicion he had toward them and soon he found himself itching to find out as much as Tails.

"Ok, ok, I yield! Just let me sort myself out and then I'll come and meet this mysterious emerald user, but if this ends up being some sick joke from Shadow again I swear I'm gonna beat that emo to a pulp!" He helped Tails up from the floor and walked into his interconnected bathroom, no one could ever see that he had cried, or his reputation would go out the window, especially if it was Shadow. He didn't mind so much if it was knuckles or Tails, they were guys, but if it was the girls or any of his more distant friends like the Chaotix, he would never live it down. He washed his face down with cold water, erg… water. It was kind of ironic how the one with aquaphobia was the one never seen having it coming out of his eyes, like the one with astraphobia was always seen fiddling with electricity. _I need to get over this fear, it's weighing me down. You never know, one day the only thing separating me from Tails will be water and I won't be fast enough to save him._ The image of this scene flashed before his eyes and he cringed, he never wanted that to happen to his brother. He looked at himself in the mirror, _Without my fear, nothing can stop me from saving my li'll bro. I will get over it if it's the last thing I do._

"Sonic, you nearly done? Knuckles may enter my lab at any second and won't have a clue who they are, so I'd hurry up if I were you!" Tails voice came from outside snapped him out of his trance, "it feels weird to say that to you of all people, you're supposed to be the fastest thing alive and yet take about 20 minutes in the bathroom of all places!" he smiled at his little brother's words, this called for a dramatic entrance. Thinking of a suitable response, Sonic opened the door and posed like a model with his hand on his hip and a leg sticking out in the doorway.

"what can I say, beauty takes time." He joked, flicking his imaginary locks and pouting. The mere thought of Sonic having long hair was enough to crack Tails up, the rare childish side of him taking charge whenever it did. Not being able to hold it in any longer, said fox erupted into fits of laughter, the joyful, infectious kind of laughter that Sonic had missed so badly these last months. All he could do was just stand there watching his brother, soaking in all that happiness radiating from him and basking in the glow of it, that laughter seemed to fill a hole that had been left gaping inside him… like the old Tails was back. But the outburst ended as quickly as it started. The warmth was sucked out of the room again, the light faded, just like it always did. Tails was left there gasping for breath, faint giggles still escaping his lips until they also died down, Sonic just looked down at his feet downcast. He knew that time was going to be just the same as the others, he was just hoping to get through to him. _Don't rush him Sonic, he'll show himself soon._ He flashed his trademark smirk at the fox before he could realise how his facial expression had so drastically changed, Tails couldn't know how much it hurt him.

"Come on li'll bro, let's not keep that mystery guy waiting any longer." He said in a cheery voice as he led Tails out of the room, _Let's just leave that hanging in there, no need to bring it up again_. He added in his head. _Healing takes time, he just needs more._

* * *

 **I'm sorry for the extreme amounts of cheese in this chapter, I think I let my hunger for some Tails and Sonic moments in Sonic X write for me here.**

 **But why does Tails need healing? Why did Sonic react so much to something that Tails could handle on his own? All questions will be revealed in time.**

 **Sonic: Yeah, like what was the joke that Shadow played on me?**

 **Shadow: You'll never know, faker.**

 **Sonic: AAGGHH! (jumps through roof)**

 **Me: How on earth did you get in here?**

 **Shadow: (Chaos controls away)**

 **Me: Oh, I forgot he could do that. :/**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello, it's been a bit since I last updated so I thought that I should post this chapter. This is how Chris's family reacted to his disappearance, no Sonic or anyone. They are mentioned but don't actually appear. For anyone who doesn't know, Chris's Mum is called Linsey and his Dad is Nelson just in case anyone gets confused. Well here we go...**

* * *

 **Chapter 5**

"Chris? Chris, Sam's here. He wants you to take a look at his car, there's a new driver on the road, he wants to make sure he stays ontop. I thought that this could be a nice project for you, since you're working on a speed project I said that you'd help, thought you'd be Interested." Chuck knocked on the door again, "Chris you in there?" no answer. "Chris?" his hand hovered over the door handle, "I'm coming in." gradually he opened the door, expecting to see his grandson asleep at his desk but was greeted by complete emptiness. His heart rate increased tenfold. This was the last room in the house he had to check, and Chris wasn't there. He didn't think that he would be the type to run away, he had always been happy at home, and yet he wasn't there. Slowly he walked further inside, "Come on Chris this isn't funny." This couldn't be real. "if you don't come out now I'll just treat you like a little kid." No answer. "Stop it with the hiding, you're 18. I thought you were better than this." he stuck his head under the table. No Chris, only his phone. This day was getting better and better. _If he's not here, he can't be inside the house and I can't call him, great._ He rested his elbows on the desk suddenly feeling extremely tired, this was just too much. As he stood up his eyes caught on an envelope, _Probably just bills._ Still he reached out and tore the top open, yanking the contents out roughly and scanned the words with his eyes, his hands started to tremble mimicking his lip. "H-he's…" He bolted out of the doorway and up the stairs, "LINSEY! NELSON! GET HERE QUICK!"

* * *

' _To Mum, Dad, Chuck, Helen, Sam, Danny, Frances, Ella, and Mr Tanaka,_

 _By the time you've found this, I'll be far away. No Dad don't send the police after me, they won't be able to find me anywhere. If my co-ordinates are right, I'll be on Mobius right now looking for Sonic and the others or waiting for them to find me. I'm sorry that I didn't tell you all what I was going to do, if I had you would have wanted to come to, (I'm looking at you Chuck, I know you miss Tails!)-'_

Chuck's face went bright red as he paused his reading, had it really been that obvious? The 8-year-old fox had truly been a kindred spirit, it had felt extremely good to have someone who understood his techno babble, and when he had left there was no one who did. He would love to meet him again and talk all about their newest inventions to each other.

' _-I don't know how dangerous it is there and I didn't want you to get hurt because of me. I've been planning this for years now. Don't worry, I feel perfectly fine at home, I didn't run away or anything like that. Just think of it as a vacation, just a possibly long one. I promise you that I'll come back, or at least find a way of communication before I do. I doubt that there's any Wi-Fi there, so It will most likely be through the means of letters, don't be surprised if one suddenly flies out of the teleporter because that's the most promising way of getting them there, me and Tails will work it out somehow. I don't know when I will be able to see you again, so I want to say that you've been the best family and friends I could ask for. Ella, you're the most amazing chef I've ever met, you'd be great at having your own cooking show! Mr Tanaka put your jacket back on.'_

The butler closed his mouth and buttoned it back up, so predictable.

' _You have always been worthy of serving me, I'm the one not worthy of your service. Mum and Dad, I love you and I'm sorry for going so suddenly, I'll be back soon. Chuck, thank you for being there for me, I'll make sure to say hi to Tails for you! Sam, thanks for being the best Uncle ever. I'll tell Sonic your record, he'll definitely be impressed and I bet will want a rematch! Danny and Frances, thank you for being my friends for so long, it was hard for me to find friends and yet I found you two, talk about luck. Helen, I love you so much._

 _I hope to see you soon!_

 _Chris xxx_

 _(P.S: I'll try to send you some photos at some point!)'_

The Thornadike residence sat in the living room in dumbstruck silence. They couldn't believe what they had just read. Chris was gone. He was actually gone. He wasn't even on the same planet as them. It all just felt like a bad dream.

"please say that you can find him, like track him down?" Nelson turned to his father, Chuck, his face blank. No answer.

"Chuck, you can build something to help right?" Linsey's hand fell onto his shoulder. Still no answer.

"Tell me you can find my son." still no answer.

"TELL ME YOU CAN FIND MY SON!" Nelson screamed it this time, standing up and knocking over the coffee table. Silence.

"please honey, calm down. Shouting won't help Chris"

"DON'T YOU CARE ABOUT OUR SON?! HE'S ON ANOTHER PLANET AND YOU DON'T CARE?!"

"Of course I care darling, it's just Chris wouldn't- "

"WELL HE'S NOT HERE IS HE!"

"Mr Thorndike, please refrain yourself." Tanaka's voice managed to be heard, his smooth tone managing to conceal his concern. Always trying to be professional was Mr Tanaka.

"DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO YOU- "

"NELSON!" Chuck cut him off, eyes brimming with fury as he stood up and locked them with his son's, "STOP THIS RIGHT NOW! I WILL TRY MY BEST TO GET TO CHRIS, BUT YOU NEED TO GIVE BOTH OF US TIME, SHOUTING AT EVERYONE WON'T MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE! YOU SHOULD TRUST YOUR SON!" Nelsons form seemed to deflate under the looming anger of his father, Chuck rarely got this angry which made it even more frightening. Realising his outburst, Chuck sighed and crumpled up back onto the sofa with his head in his hands, the anger evaporating off him like steam. The atmosphere was tense and uncomfortable, Chuck could practically feel the air pressing down on him. "I'm going to go call Danny, Frances and Helen. They need to know what's going on." He mumbled, standing up again and walking into the hallway, really he only wanted to get out of there. Silence settled once again. Ella opened her mouth to say something but closed it again, she ran into the kitchen and closed the door behind her, muffled sobs escaping from the room.

"if you will excuse me, will go check on Ella." Tanaka left next, bowing before leaving and hurrying to the kitchen after her. Now only Linsey and her husband remained.

"Oh Nelson! What are we going to do?"

"I don't know honey, I just don't know."

* * *

 **There you have it, chapter 5. Again, I'm not sure when my next chapter will come, I'll try and get it up before a week. I hope you're enjoying so far, again please review if you like how it's going so far. I still only have 1, it's kinda sad, didn't think this was quite _that_ bad. :( But anyhoo, next chapter has both Eggman and the others in it, I haven't quite finished it so it may be a while. Oh and by the way, could anyone tell me if it would be Chris' or Chris's? I'm not sure which one is correct.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello, now this is chapter 6 but chapter 7 is still being written. I think this story may end up as one with only the boys in it as the main people and maybe the girls will pop up every now and then. By the way, this is set** **before the whole Cosmo thing in space, well, it hasn't happened yet or won't happen in the first place in this timeline of Mobius. Tails would be some depressed character throughout the whole story if it had.**

* * *

 **Chapter 6**

Eggman sat in his circular chair grimacing, his bald head illuminated by screens in front of his face. _How could that little freak beat my latest robots? It makes no sense._ Yes, this time he didn't use 'blue pineapple' or 'blue rat' he thought the word 'freak', a word he described Tails with, not Sonic. He was still brooding over the battle he had that morning, something had him particularly stumped about it, stumped enough to cause him to spend the rest of the day trying to figure it out. Apparently, that also included spending that time in the dark. The door at the back of the room opened, letting in rays of light and making him hiss, he had been in there way to long.

"what do you want, you stupid bucket of bolts?" Decoe stood on the doorway looking awkward, he saluted clumsily.

"We were just wondering what to do for your next evil scheme, sir!" the tall yellow robot hastily said.

"Yes sir, awaiting your next command." Bocoe skidded behind his friend and saluted as well, the chubby bot often found it hard to keep up with its lanky counterpart.

"Well then beat it, I don't have one yet." Eggman wrenched his gaze from the screens to glare at them, his moustache bristling in annoyance. He was in a foul mood and it would be smart of the robots just to turn tail and run before he deconstructed them, unfortunately for them, that wasn't an option available to them. It was slightly sad of Eggman to program his creations to care about him, but there you go, he was a sad man.

"But sir, what have you been doing in here all day then?" Eggman's glare intensified, Bocoe could practically feel it melting a hole in his breastplate.

"come over here and I'll show you idiots." he turned back to the screens and pressed play, in a minute Bocoe and Decoe were standing on either side of him, their eyes widening in amazement of what they were watching. It was Tails' battle. He fought like they had never seen him fight before, more powerful, faster and precise then he had ever been, but the most astonishing thing was the chaos energy arcing off his body. They had no idea he could use chaos energy before now, it was obvious that he was, but it was… different. It leaked from his body instead of building up inside, that had only ever happened whilst someone had gone super when they had energy to spare, he definitely hadn't gone super, his colour was the same shade as beforehand. Plus, the only known source of chaos energy were the emeralds but he hadn't got one, he was making his own energy instead of using one somehow! Their jaws hit the floor (well they would have if they had them), their processors working extremely hard to understand this new revelation.

"There must be something wrong, Dr. A malfunction of the camera," Decoe spluttered, "This isn't possible."

"I know, you imbecile. Fox boy seems to have found a new way of chaos, I have never seen this before, not even with that stupid blue rat… I want all surveillance on him, he's a bigger threat now than he's ever been. I ordered my backup bee bots to scan him, tell me when the data comes through, try and look past your incompetence just this once and get the message across or I will melt you down, maybe I can make something actually useful out of your parts." With that his chair disconnected from the floor and he floated off, closing the door and cutting of the light. The dumbstruck droids stood like lemons in the dark, repeatedly watching the video until it was burnt into their memory banks, analysing his every move, calculating the probability of each. Just as they were going to click play for the 30th time, a box popped up on the screen and blocked the view.

"Decoe, get that off the screen would you."

"No, it looks important, Dr Eggman may need it."

"What even Is it though?"

"I don't know, but it says:

To: Dr Eggman

Subject: fox mobian

Status: urgent

Contents: scanning result of fox mobian. Oh! The scanning result!"

"We must go tell Eggman immediately!"

"We need to see it first!" The slender robot clicked on the pop-up and a page opened, showing a 3D image of Tails, nothing new, just him in his pilot jacket and goggles like usual. They were disappointed, they were expecting something out of the ordinary, or at least a sign of a chaos emerald in his pocket.

"Nothing different, Bocoe. Just regular Tails, not the result I was anticipating."

"Maybe that wasn't the result…" Bocoe leant over the table and snatched the mouse off Decoe, dragging the curser over to the top right corner, "What about the x-ray?" Another diagram appeared showing-

"WE NEED TO TELL THE DR RIGHT NOW!"

* * *

Chris was seriously bored, sitting doing nothing with his eyes closed wasn't something he would call 'fun' but that was what he was doing anyway. It had been ages since his saviour had left, surely, he could open his eyes now? They said that they would sting if he did, but they had phrased it 'close your eyes for a bit'. A bit. _You know what, any pain is better than this. I'm going for it!_ He opened them a crack, momentarily stunned by the brightness before adjusting. _Ok my eyes don't hurt, that's a bonus_. He looked around the room, _Talk about OCD_. He slid off the bed and took a bee line to the desk when he noticed that the papers were blueprints, so they were an inventor like him, his spirits rose. Maybe they could become friends, they must have so much in common! _Maybe they can help me find Sonic, they seem pretty smart._ A door slammed shut somewhere in the house, if it was a house, making him jump and he accidentally knocked over a picture that was sitting on the desk, smashing the glass. Hastily he fumbled on the floor trying to pick it up, his mind was full of both fear and joy when he looked at the picture. It showed a selfie of Sonic and Tails, from before he met them judging by how old they looked, Sonic laughing with his trademark thumbs up, Tails flying upside down grinning, a red robot laying in a heap behind them. Judging by their elated expressions, it was probably taken following their first battle together. His heart flew when he realised that whoever saved him was a Sonic fan but sank lower as he noticed something written on the side. This picture must have meant the world to the owner because it was signed by Sonic, _ **signed**_ , and he had just smashed the frame! Whoever it belonged to would be angry, he needed to find somewhere to hide, he had no idea if they were a violent type but didn't want to take any chances.

Sonic and Tails emerged from the bedroom, the former leading the latter by the arm. As they were in front of the door, Tails ears started swivelling and he tugged his hand away before edging towards the entrance.

"What is it, something wrong?" Sonic was concerned, _hope he isn't having another one of his weird moments_. Tails ears perked up even more when he heard a smash and bared his teeth. Sonic came to stand next to his brother, pressing his ear to the door, he could hear scrabbling.

"This could either be the person you brought in, or an old eggy bot." Sonic whispered, the only response he got was a nod. _Man, it's annoying when this happens_. "I hope it's the first, well it could be both… you sure it wasn't a robot?" Tails nodded again. "Ok, we'll go in together," he chuckled, "Let me do all the talking" Tails shot an indignant look at Sonic, "Ok, ok. That wasn't funny. In 1, 2, 3…" Sonic burst into the room, no one was there. "Ok… weird. Thought I heard someone in here…" Suddenly, the door of the metal box flew open and flung out a befuddled Chris, sending him flying towards the surprised Sonic, but before he could get there he was tackled by Tails. They landed on the ground, Tails sitting on top, his teeth bared and claws out, a fist raised.

"Woah calm it down a bit." Sonic came to Chris's rescue and yanked the fox off, "He's harmless, he was just a bit scared, that's all. No need to go berserk on the poor guy, you only just checked him up." He sat Tails on one of the beds, getting a look at him properly for the first time. "Chaos, you might need checking yourself! Just sit there." He turned back to Chris, who had sat up and was staring at him with his mouth agape, he choked. He had just realised who it was. "-C-c-hris?! H-h-ow?" Sonic's mind was threatening to black out.

"Sonic?!"

"whooo, I need to sit down." He sat next to Tails, who had his back and head resting on the wall with his eyes closed. "I'm going mad now." He mimicked his position.

"No, you're not, I'm actually here" Chris said smiling, Sonic looked up, "yeah, I can't quite believe it either."

"No way." Sonic got up and approached Chris, arm outstretched, Chris took it and pulled him into a hug. "No way! Chris?! Oh my god I missed ya pal!"

"yeah, I missed you too! It's been a while hasn't it, sorry I took so long, but 6 Years isn't bad for making an interdimensional portal! It's extremely complicated but I found out that if you increase the magnetic disposition-"

"A what?! Ok, ok, stop there, you'll have to talk to Tails about this. Oh… I guess you won't need to wait much longer!" Tails groaned from behind them and blinked blearily, "Look who decided to join the world!" the fox tried to stand up, but his legs gave way and buckled beneath him, landing in a pile on the floor.

"Woah there big guy, you feeling ok? You had another weird moment just then." Sonic rushed over and picked him up off the floor and set him back on the bed, "You there bud?"

"fine." He didn't seem 'fine' to Sonic, he was way to pail to be 'fine'.

"Take it easy buddy, you're not completely yourself yet." he sat down next to him.

"I'm fine, don't be such a mother hen."

"Excuse me? Mother hen? Do I look like a bird to you?"

"Stick a yellow cone on your facel and you'll make a convincing flickie!" Tails tried to stand again but fell, this time caught by another person.

"Tails, you ok?" Chris sat Tails up against the bed, examining his friend.

"Yes, just a bit wobbly, nothing to worry about. You can see now then, erm, but how did you know my name? I don't remember telling you… Sonic?" Sonic had given out an involuntary gasp and had shot up out of his seat.

"Oh yeah, talking about telling, you haven't told Knuckles you're here yet, he must be worried sick! Why don't you go talk to him, hu?"

"But Sonic, there's something wrong with Tails! He doesn't-"

"We'll talk about that later." Sonic hissed under his breath,

"But-"

"Right let's go!" Sonic slung Tails over his shoulder unceremoniously, "Be back in a Sonic second." In a blink of an eye he was in Knuckles room, setting Tails down and running off again, planning to just go straight to his room but was snagged by Chris' outstretched arm and tugged back into the workshop.

"You aren't getting off telling me that easy!"

"You sound like Amy. Talking about Amy, I need to go and-"

"No, you don't need to go, you need to tell me what's happened."

Sonic perched on the edge of the desk, avoiding Chris' eyes.

"Sonic?" he forced their eyes to meet, "Sonic, what's wrong with Tails?" Sonic wrenched his gaze away again and bit his lip,

"I don't really want to talk about it."

"You said you'd tell me, I'm his friend, I'm worried for him."

"I-"

"Tell me." Chris' tone changed to one of authority.

"It's better for you not to know."

"Sonic, no it's not better."

"Believe me, it is." Sonic lifted his head up, Chris noticed the tears pricking the corners of his eyes.

"Please." Sonic jumped to his feet and started his way to the door. "Sonic wait." He turned back to Chris. "Please, why doesn't he remember me?" he lingered at the door,colour draining from his face with each word Chris spoke. "And why…"

"Chris you don't wanna know." Sonic could only manage to whisper his words.

"…Why is he part robot?"

* * *

 **So it's finally revealed, Tails is a cyborg and doesn't remember who Chris is. They did go to Earth because Sonic does remember Chris so it can't be because of some different version of Mobius thing. I tried to end on a cliff hanger, if it is cliffhangery enough, ha! like I said before, chap 7 is a working progress so you'll just have to wait. I'm evil like that. ;P**


	7. Chapter 7 (part 1)

**Hello you beautiful people! Sorry about the wait, it's been over like 2 weeks since I last posted, sorry those who wanted to know what was next. I got super hyped when Warner Bro favourited and followed me and the reviews started to flow in, I started writing like a madman, but then some not so nice ones came and I lost my mojo again. But I'm back now so yeah. Thank you Misue, Ladedadedo2, LittleLuckyLombax, Remnants of Fantasy and Warner Bro for the support!**

 **Misue: Thank you so much for being such a wonderful friend, you really helped me to get back my confidence. You keep drawing 'baxes like there's no tomorrow! Heh, you could draw a salty Amber pickle (cough, cough story reference)! Yes I'm an extreme Zane fan. The whole Zane being a robot and Tails also being a cyborg thing never crossed my mind, I think that I've watched so much Ninjago that I write about it subconsciously, my subconscious truly is a strange place...**

 **LittleLuckyLombax:** **thank you for sticking up for me, it meant a lot to me. You're actually also the first person to review my story that I don't know in real life but just by those I can tell that you're a nice person. Please pm me if you put any stories up, I will read them for sure! Yes, I faved you, I'm just weird like that! ;P**

 **Remnants of Fantasy: thank you for that message, I'm not sure if you got my reply but I really appreciate the support you gave and the compliments to my writing. You're an amazing author, I'm chuffed how you like mine. How do you like my writing style? I feel like I use way to many ands. Do I use to many ands? Thank you for reading my story as well, I wasn't expecting that (cue ****Jamie Lawson - Wasn't Expecting That. Yep, again I couldn't help but put a song in and again I find said song annoying).**

 **Warner Bro:** **wow, thank you for following and faving my story! Like LittleLuckyLombx you were the first person who I don't know who had done this for my story. You have no idea how happy that made me feel! it's nice to know that your story is liked.**

 **Ladedadedo2:** **I've got you to thank for letting me write these In the first place. One day I'll explain Sonic programs to you but I think you'll prefer to stick with weird books about people who turn into pandas on a different planet.**

 **All you guys are awesome. I wasn't sure if I was going to continue with this story, I'm not a confident person and what little I have can get dented easily, but you supported me and made me want to take it all the way to the finish line. To make up for my absence I have come up with my longest chapter yet, It wasn't supposed to be a 2 part chappie but then I noticed that it had ended up being 9 pages long on word so I decided to stop there and do it in parts. Part 2 isn't written yet so that may also take a while, sorry dudes. Oh and by the way, something strange has gone on with my computer and it's adding in words from before I edited it, I've gone through it but I may miss something, please tell me if I have. ;D**

* * *

 **Chapter 7 (part 1)**

"How long has he been…" Chris trailed off.

"He…" Sonic paused and looked away, "He's been this way for months now, it all happened so quickly. I- I wasn't fast enough, for once I wasn't fast enough."

"I'm sure it wasn't… your… you know… fault…"

"…"

"Sonic?"

"… It was though…" he looked down at his gloves in disgust, he took full blame for it in his head.

"I doubt that it-"

"-BUT IT WAS! He wouldn't have- I could've- he shouldn't have- if I hadn't-".

"Sonic, what happened?"

"…"

"please… Sonic…"

"…"

"I can't help you if you don't tell me. Please, I want to help you."

"Eggman. It all started after we'd broken into Eggman's new base…"

 _ **(Flashback)** _

"Taking a left, I will be there in about a minute Sonic." Tails sped through Eggman's lair navigating through the twisted passages.

"Kay bud. You have a USB by any chance?" Sonic's voice came through the other end of the communicator.

"Of course. I'm prepared for anything, you never know with Eggman. See, I told you we might need one at some point."

"Yeah, yeah Mr know it all."

"Stop it with the chit chat you two, we have a mission here." Knuckles joined the conversation.

"Sorry Knux, just asking Einstein over here if he had a USB, funnily enough, he does."

"Why do you need one? And why does Tails carry one around with him? Bit strange."

"Hey! You should always be prepared!."

"Paranoid more like." Knuckles was hardly audible.

"I need it because old Eggy has some sort of super computer robot… thingie, I thought we could download some of the stuff in it-" smashing noises blocked out Sonic's voice for a few moments,

"That's new, Sonic and thinking don't usually go together."

"ha, ha, very funny Knux." Sonic's voice was extremely sarcastic, "I thought _**I**_ was the jokey one. Erm, mind hurrying up a bit guys?." Tails spun his namesakes faster and gave himself an extra burst of speed, these halls just seemed to keep going and going, "You'd both better hurry up or I'll have crushed this thing before you're here."

"Don't sweat it, I'm almost there Sonic, but I think I must have picked the route with the longest corridors."

"Ok Tails just don't take too long, this battle's getting a bit boring, I've only torn off an arm so far. Do you know how much restraint I've had to use?! Seriously though, it's getting on my nerves now, I just want to dash this thing to high heaven- no that's my face, THE FACE IS OFF LIMITS YOU STUPID ROBOT- see what I mean? Annoying.""

"You're annoying."

"And you're slow and grouchy."

"And _**you're**_ going to get one of my fists in your mouth."

"You'd have to get here first- HA MISSED ME, you need some work on your aim- wow, I wasn't even moving that time! That idiot-bot completely missed me! This should be easy."

"Don't get too cocky Sonic, things can change quickly if you're not careful."

"Ha, look who's paranoid now!"

"Be quiet Tails."

"Sorry."

"Shut it, get on with the mission and stop chatting." Knuckles hung up on his communicator.

"Party pooper." Sonic muttered under his breath, "Yo, you nearly there?" Tails screeched to a halt as he met a dead end. He flicked his namesakes in annoyance, he had planned on there being a door, but he must have taken a wrong turn somewhere. He glanced down at his communicator watch and saw the blue dot representing Sonic blinking as well as the desired entrance only on the other sides of the walls he was facing, he sighed, _So close and yet so far._

"You still there? Heloo?" Tails massaged his temples, Sonic was so inpatient.

"I think I went the wrong way at some point."

"Hu? Wait, does that mean I have to wait even more?! URGH!"

"Nope, I might as well work with what I have. Brace yourself."

"Huh? Why do I need to-" _**KABOOM!**_ The wall behind him blew up, spewing dust everywhere. Tails flew through the cloud and landed softly beside the blue hero.

"That's why. When you can't find an entrance, you make one." He jerked his thumb back at the hole, "I'm not paying for that by the way."

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY WALL?! THIS PLACE IS BRAND NEW YOU KNOW?!" Eggman's voice came from behind the large humanoid-ish robot which was brandishing a cannon menacingly.

 **(A/N: I imagine this robot as looking like obliterator bot from Sonic Boom (this is still a Sonic X fic though) but with a computer screen head, just in case you were wondering. I don't think that I'll go into descriptions until a bit later, I tend to blab a bit and my brain isn't working to well today, I need some sleep. If you watch we bare bears you could also think of them a bit like the robot henchmen with the phone heads from Icy Nights II. If you don't know either then I'm just gonna leave it to the imagination, lets get those lovely little brains of yours working better than mine! :D)**

"it's your fault for having such complicated corridors!" Sonic came to Tails defence, "Plus, we wouldn't even have to come here if you weren't evil!"

"Why thank you, I take that as a compliment." Eggman appeared in his circular chair above the giant robot's computer screen head and ordered it to halt its assault, Knuckles struggled with his chains underneath his feet, "But you're going to have to flatter me harder to get Knuckles here back!"

"Knuckles?!" Both Tails and Sonic said in unison, why were they so surprised?

"How? Hu? Wha? Again?!" Sonic threw his arms in the air in exasperation.

"He was were extremely convincing!" Knuckles protested, "It's not my fault! The Master Emerald is my top priority!" Seriously, this happens every time. Eggman had realised Knuckles weakness to persuasion years ago and used it against him frequently, mostly entwining the Master Emerald in his lies to guarantee cooperation. This time he had convinced Knuckles that this whole mission was a scheme by Tails and Sonic to get him away from the emerald long enough for Amy to steal it whilst he wasn't there guarding the priceless jewel. Knuckles had fallen for the rouse, though with some hesitation this time, he couldn't believe that his friends would betray him, but Eggman showed him a (*cough cough, badly cough cough) edited audio of a conversation between the trio and that was apparently enough for him. Even he had to admit that years in solitude on Angel Island didn't make him the sharpest tool in the shed, he never went to school or even had an intelligent conversation until he met Sonic and Tails, the latter more frequently than the former. Eggman swung him around below his chair tauntingly,

"What's stopping you from getting your precious knuckles back? Oh yeah! The massive robot that I created! It's called the Eggbrain 5,000, my special programming has made it smarter than any I have ever made, you can't stop me! Ho, ho ho ho ho ho!"

"See? _**That's**_ why I wanted a USB, thought you'd want to make your computer super smart or something, it'd be cool to have a talking computer you gotta admit.." Sonic sheepishly scratched the back of his head.

"Woah, that'd be awesome! Thanks for saving it for me!" Tails playfully punched Sonic on the shoulder before turning back to Eggman, "You'd better give us Knuckles-"."

"-If you don't, your bot will end up nothing more than a dent in the floor!" Sonic finished for him.

"Yeah! I'll smash it myself after I smash these chains!" Knuckles flailed like a wet fish.

"Oh, ho ho ho ho! I don't think you'll get out my fiery friend! Those are made from pure vibranium, the strongest metal on Mobius! There's no way you can get out, it's hard, light and easily moulded into whatever shape you want when heated enough! Unfortunately, I have none left to build my robots, but it was all worth it to watch you squirm! Oh, ho, ho, ho, ho!" Knuckles stopped and crossed his arms, he wouldn't give Eggman the luxury.

"Shows over Eggface!" Sonic revved up a spin dash, "Give Knuckles back or we'll spin dash your bot to next week!"

"Yeah!" Tails started to spin as well, "You don't stand a chance against both of us together!"

"I don't think I will let him go, this is far to amusing."

"Well, your loss!" Sonic said giving the signal to Tails, they released their dashes on the robot grinding noises filling the room with its deafening symphony. Tails fell to the ground first and clapped his hands to his ears, the attack had only managed to tear open a few areas, not the effect they were hoping for.

"Sonic, stop! It's not working!" he cried, Sonic uncurled and fell to the floor.

"You have a better idea, bud?"

"No. I have no idea how to defeat this thing, its way past my level of intellect!" he winked at Sonic.

"I know! This thing is way to hard to beat!" Sonic winked back.

"I told you it was smart! It adapts to its environment and its enemies using its knowledge! Its ingenious!" Eggman took the bait and started to boast, "I didn't think you would be able to beat it, you of course are only a stupid blue rat, I am your superior. I have your friend and the upper hand in this battle, my genius is far too great for you to possibly comprehend! The data stored in its head will allow me to create even more powerful inventions, you can't outsmart it in attack mode, this is my greatest plan yet! Once I get you annoying pests out of the way I will be able to use it to take control of G.U.N's databases, nothing will stop me! Oh, ho, ho, ho, ho!"

"I think there may be a few holes in your plan though Eggface!" Sonic chuckled to himself, the megalomaniac had been to absorbed in his gloating to notice what they had done.

"And what are those may I ask?"

"Well first of all," Tails answered before Sonic could, "never admit how malleable your chains are to someone who always carries with him an extra heated wielder." He twirled it on his finger and set it back in his pocket.

"In the time you took to roll in your own swollen ego, we have released Knuckles," the echidna then walked up from behind Sonic glaring daggers at the obese human, "downloaded your programming and mess up its wiring a bit." Sonic said, "Sheesh, you really need to pay more attention to your surroundings! You're worse than Espio when he's meditating! You didn't even tell it to attack or anything! You really _**are**_ as stupid as you look!" Eggman growled like an angry dog, insults did not settle well with him. His knuckles went white as his grip tightened on his controls, he had an itching desire to squash the trio under his foot like little bugs, oh how he would like that, but he would let his creation have the pleasure.

"You really don't know when to stop do you my dear Sonic? You've made me mad now, really mad."

"That's old news, you went mad the day you were born." Sonic flicked his nose cockily not noticing the width of the thin line he was treading, Tails shot a nervous glance towards him, Eggman usually shouted when he was angry, the calm coldness in his tone was unnerving.

"By the time I'm done with you, you'll wish you weren't. Initiate protocol 551." The robot stood there unmoving.

"HA EGGY! Looks like Mr Brainybolts here's out of commission!" Sonic burst out in laughter at the response, Knuckles and Tails relaxed and dropped their battle stances thinking that this was the case, though remained tenser than Sonic, they didn't trust that this was all Eggman had up his sleeve. Suddenly a huge beam of energy blasted Sonic into the wall taking him of guard and sending him deep inside the stone, Tails' jaw hit the floor.

"Sonic?!"

"TARGET NEUTRALISED TEMPERARILY, ENGAGING PROTOCOL 551." The Eggbrain 5,000's head slid down its back and brought its legs up to its chest revealing monster truck wheels which it promptly fell onto, its smoking arm cannon inserted into the front creating a tank like new body. Its screen flickered and split apart, the rectangle pieces slotting into the sides neatly and turned on again except creating a bubble like forcefield around the body, "PROTOCOL 551 COMPLETED," it turned slowly to face Knuckles with its cannon, "NEW PRIMARY TARGET AQUIARED: KNUCKLES, ECHIDNA. PREPARE FOR ANIALATION." It started charging its weapon up, the energy inside crackled loudly as it built up its power, Knuckles gulped loudly, _Why me?_ He dodged the blast just in time, it missing by an inch of his dreadlocks. Tails flew up into the air to avoid another missed attack on knuckles but bounced off the field that was expanding around the tank landing on his butt clumsily, Kuckles ran past him and the robot followed his every move, Tails tried distracting it, but the robot ignored him and continued to attack Knuckles. Nothing he could do would take its concentration off his friend, well, nothing _**he**_ could do.

"Oh, come on BaldyMcNosehair! You can do better than a slow hunk of metal like that!" Sonic limped out of the him shaped hole, flicking his nose again and joining the battle.

"Goody, I was worried that you may take so long in there that I wouldn't get to watch you being pummelled! Oh, ho, ho, ho!" Eggman's annoying laughter rang out loudly, "Eggbrain 5,000, prioritise Sonic, KILL HIM!" that was better, quiet Eggman was getting everyone on edge, well, Sonic not so much. The tank stopped shooting at Knuckles and spun around rather slowly, chasing Knuckles had lowered its energy supply gaining more was only a matter of using less at a time, "I SAID KILL HIM!" it sped up. A bit.

"Like I said, 'a _**slow**_ hunk of metal'," Sonic chuckled, "you do know that speed's kinda my thing?' he curled up into a ball and spindashed it, harmlessly bounding back off the force field, this took him completely by surprise since it had transformed whilst he was stuck in the wall and he missed his landing much like Tails did (but still managed to retain some dignity by doing a forward roll after).

"Did I forget to mention the FORCE FIELDS?! Oh ho ho ho ho ho!" Sonic just glared. "Don't be such a kill joy, Sonic. The fun's just getting started!" Suddenly, hundreds of robot henchmen burst through the wall, "WHAT IS WHITH THE OBSESSION OF BREAKING MY WALL TODAY?!"

"Well, no one likes your décor, simple as that." Sonic punched an oncoming robot in the gut and sent it sprawling into the tank's field, the blast momentarily creating a hole in it, Sonic goggled _wow, what does he put in these things?_ An idea popped into his mind, "hey Knuckles,"

"Yeah." Knuckles threw one into the wall and it exploded as well.

"I have a plan."

"Nah genius, care to enlighten me?"

"Chuck 'em at the field, I'll get through the gap and Tails can- hey where's Tails?" Sonic dodged a lazer blast from the tank, "Please don't tell me he got hit," he pressed down on his earpiece, "Tails, where you at? You ok?" he was met by static, _No no no no, this can't be happening._

"Sonic, worry about yourself for a moment!" Knuckles ran in front of the hedgehog and bulldozed a swarm of robots coming towards him, "For once can you pay attention?!"

"He's not picking up!"

"He can take care of himself!" the robots kept coming faster than they could destroy them, "We've got bigger problems at the moment!"

"BIGGER THAN THE SAFETY OF MY LITTLE BRO?! Get your priorities straight man!"

"My priority is staying alive!" he punched through the wall of robots only for another wave to rush forward. "I can't break through, there's no way we can destroy the cannon before it fires!"

"Where are they even coming from?" The robots came faster than they were smashing them. The numbers were becoming overwhelming. Knuckles and Sonic were pushed back to back. The army was compressing around them. A high-pitched whistling. The cannon charging up. Fists flying. Ringing laughter. More robots. Kicking and punching all they could. Cannon ready to fire. No Tails.

"FIRING IN 5,-"

"Don't give up Knux, keep going!"

"It's no use Sonic, we can't break their ranks, there's nothing we can do!"

"Don't think like that!"

"-4,-"

"Keep going to the end!"

"This _ **is**_ the end!

"Just a few more seconds…"

"-3,-"

"if you hadn't noticed, we don't have that long!"

"-2,-"

"Just wait Knux." Sonic just smirked.

"-1." Knuckles closed his eyes, waiting for the impact. "SYSTEMS OVERRIDED. PRIMARY TARGET UPDATED: EGGMAN." But it never came.

"Wa- WHAT!? I override that overriding!" he cracked open a lid, the relentless attack had paused, all eyes, even artificial, were on Eggman.

"DENIED."

"DENIED?! WHAT DO YOU MEAN DENIED?! I AM YOUR CREATOR!"

"INSIGNIFICANT. PRIMARY TARGET LOCKED." There was no use arguing with it. "CANNON 100% CHARGED-"

"What?! No, no, minions protect me!" Eggman was getting so flustered his face fat wobbled like jelly, Sonic would have killed to video it in slow motion, that would have been blackmail gold. The robot swarmed over his chair this time, creating a sphere around it like a shell out of their own bodies to take the force of the upcoming blast.

"-FIRE." Two gloved hands pulled the hedgehog and echidna backwards just in time. The beam hit the metal, it glowed bright red in contact. Great globs of molten iron sprayed from the hole and created puddles on the floor, one mangled head rolled in one and became a tangled mess. All seemed quiet for a moment, Sonic cautiously stuck a head out from behind the piece of rubble Tails had pulled them behind. "FIRE." It attempted another attack, "CANNON MALFUNCTION. TUNNEL BLOCKED. OVERLOAD IMMINENT." Sonic's eyes widened, it didn't take a genius to work out what that meant. The iron had hit the entrance to the cannon and blocked it!

"It's gonna blow!" Sonic screamed.

"GET BEHIND HERE THEN YOU MUPPET!" Knuckles grabbed him by the head and yanked him back again. All three of them tucked up into balls and jammed their fingers in their ears.#

* * *

 **So there's part 1 of chapter 7. Wow, almost 4,000 words! I hope that made up for leaving you on a cliff hanger last chapter and going missing for weeks. Please tell me what you think! If you want part 2 up quicker let me know that you like it and I'll automatically work on overdrive. I'll try not to take as long this time! XD**


	8. Chapter 7 (part 2)

**Hello readers! Again I'm so sorry for the long wait (for any person who was), this part ended up being 7,808 words so I hope that explains and makes up for it. Yeah, sorry Misue. I was either 2 parts or wait even longer to get both parts in 1, I went for the first choice, it was less painful. This chapter is again the longest one so far, that doesn't necessarily mean it's the best though, I didn't really like the last chapter. As you can probably tell, I'm not the best at writing fight scenes so they end up a bit naff, a whole chapter of then was not a good idea. This is a continuation of the flashback, the lines mean there's either a change in time or place, italics are thoughts, bold italics in regular speech mean that the word is said with extra emphasis, and in some cases bold words mean that its said in a different voice but only in some. By the way, I've changed Sonic's 'you's to 'ya's because it seemed right. Thank you to everyone who's reviewed or favourited my story or has just read it!**

 **Disclaimer: (because I forgot in like all other chapters) I own nothing in any chapters, this one, past ones or future ones. If I did, Tails would have more of his own games, he would dump Zooey in Sonic Boom (I'm sorry fans of that ship, I'm just a bit ticked off how he was all like 'I will love you forever Cosmo!" and then went out with another fox, even if it's technically in a separate universe), and they would do 1 last Sonic X episode where there's a time skip or something of a few years where Cosmo comes back.**

* * *

Chapter 7 (part 2)

The boom that followed was deafening, their fingers didn't do much to help block it out. Pieces of metal and debree rained down on them like bullets, the chunk of rubble managed to shield them from the larger pieces but smaller ones shot over its defences and sliced at the fur of the trio, soon they were covered in cuts but they didn't care. They were alive at least. The same couldn't be said for Eggman's robots though. The explosion had hit them full force basically tearing them limb from limb due to the immense power of it, their corpses littered the floor. Right in the center lay the battered remains of the chair upside down. Everything seemed still and quiet. It seemed like the room had just been stopped in time. Sunlight streamed through a hole in the ceiling and danced on the dust swirls, the bodies of the robots were strewn across the floor like a new breed of abstract art, the whole place was completely calm. A lone spider casually spun her web in the corner, how she hadn't been scared off during the fight I have no idea.

"How in the name of Chaos did ya do that?" Leave it to Sonic to ruin the moment. The spider fell off the wall in surprise and crawled off moodily, she'd have to find a new spot then. "I mean though, getting Eggface's own robot to turn on him? How did you even get inside the thing?" Sonic continued knowing that Tails wasn't the best at getting praise, call it training if you want.

"It was your idea to throw the bots at the field, all I did was crawl through the hatch we got in by before and attach my watch to hack into it." Tails shook the dust from his fur, all three of them were absolutely caked in it but he seemed to be the only one who could be bothered to clean himself, if his face wasn't so thickly covered it would have been as red as Knuckles' fur, "I didn't do much. You guys were the ones holding basically a whole army back!"

"Nah, ya did great bud!" Sonic smirked and gave a thumbs up, "You too ya Knucklehead, we kicked butt out there. But have some faith next time, you're such a drama queen; 'this is the end'!"

"I was under pressure ok? I felt-" the echidna quickly saved himself, his gut was telling him he should keep that private so he could check it out alone later, "You weren't exactly jumping for joy either, you freaked out when you couldn't find Tails." Knuckles stood up and peered over the top of the wall and laughed when he saw the destruction, forgetting the conversation for a moment.

"I'm just amazing at acting ** _,_** not that ya could tell, Knucklehead, ya should try to be less gullible." Sonic quickly reminded him.

"And you should try being serious for once, I'm tired of your messing around, one day you're gonna get yourself killed. And don't call me 'Knucklehead', it's stupid." It was true, Sonic's playing around has gotten them into a few tough scrapes in the past, they had only just escaped the last time when he accidentally woke up a 'Giant Rock Monster' (in need of a better name).

 **(A/N: just in case, there's one in the Sonic Boom episode 'sleeping giant'. Think of it as the one from that episode, but it doesn't really matter if you still don't know.)**

"Come on you guys, stop fighting." Tails' head appeared next to his but slightly lower down due to his smaller height despite an obvious growth spurt "Eggman's the bad guy here!"

"Eggman's gone, Tails, I can argue with Sonic as much as I want." Tails looked back uneasily.

"That battle was way to easy, there's no way that was it."

"Hu?" Sonic flipped up and perched on the edge of the rock looking down at the others.

"Eggman said that the EggBrain 5,000 'adapts to its enemies' but it didn't in the slightest. It had weak resistance to hackers, it was super slow and the fields were easy to create holes in. It just doesn't make sense for him **_not_** to give us more." Tails scratched his chin in confusion, he had deffinately expected to come across a few fire walls but only found one, it was extremely easily broken and only took him a minute to crack, it was rewriting the programming that has taken him longer but still not as long as it should have.

"Maybe we messed up something important? Well, It doesn't really matter now anyways, old Eggy's been fried and it blew up. He could have even been straight up lying." Sonic said shrugging, it seemed to be a good enough excuse for Tails and he ditched the subject. Suddenly all three tensed up. The noise of metal clattering to the ground reverberated

"Did you hear that?" Knuckles vaulted over the rubble and landed crouched on the floor, Sonic did the same but Tails flew up and started scanning everywhere with his eyes; he couldn't see anything moving.

"Probably just a mouse, this place is a dump." Sonic stood upright and kicked a piece of metal by his feet, "Lets blow this lemonade stand!" He turned to leave but was stopped by Tails who had landed next to him, his ears were swiveling back an forth. Tails ears were sensitive, and when I say sensitive I mean sensitive, that's one of the reasons they were so big, Sonic and Knuckles had as well but not quite to the extent of Tails' hearing because they were much smaller ears.

"Heeehhhheeee. Heeeheee." He could hear heavy breathing mixed with mad laughter, the others hadn't seemed to have noticed.

"Sonic, that isn't a mouse." Tails said.

"There's no way Eggy's still here." Sonic was being stubborn again.

"I don't know..."

"Chillax Tails, but if it makes ya feel better I'll check."

"Yeah, we should probably do that." Tails wandered over to the centre and started to rummage through a pile, Sonic walked to the right of him to search but stayed close being the overprotective hedgehog he was, Knuckles walked to the other side of the room in a huff. He'd had enough of Sonic's messing around and needed a break, he missed his time in seclusion with only the Master Emerald, at least it didn't talk back with irritating comebacks. Maybe it was time to reconsider.

Life had been so simple before he had met the blue blur, it was a bit lonely but worth it for the peace and quiet, but his day was literally waking up, eating, looking at the Master Emerald, watching for anyone coming, eating, sleeping. Waking up. Eating. Looking. Watching. Eating. Sleeping. Waking up. Eating. Looking. Watching. Eating. Sleeping. Waking up. Eating. Looking. Watching. Eating. Sleeping. It was a bit dull now that he thought about it. His new friends had thrown his schedule into ruin in a Sonic second. At times he was grateful that they had come (not that he ever said so), but mostly he found Sonic the most annoying person on Mobius. Tails was a bit better, but he didn't understand half of his babbling, Amy was short tempered and Cream was basically still a kid. All in all, he was definitely different from them. But then again, who was the same? He was friends with a blue hedgehog who ran at the speed of sound, a flying two tailed fox, a rabbit that could also fly with her ears, and a pink hedgehog who pulled out massive hammers from thin air for heavens sake!

"See Tails? He's run off, or rolled off more likely."

"But Sonic..." The ceiling shuddered and creaked.

"We should probably get out of here Tails, before the roof collapses on top of us."

"Wait, I can still hear something." Sonic's stubbornness was starting to rub off on Tails it seemed.

"You're being paranoid, there's nothing here."

"There is and I'm not leaving until we find him, even if Eggman's the biggest jerk in the known universe we need him alive. How else are we supposed to cure everyone? We need his information."

Knuckles sat down on his pile and watched the little argument unfold, it was a rare sight to say the least. Sonic and Tails practically never fought, Tails would follow Sonic to the end of Mobius and Sonic would trust him with his life. It was a bit different between Sonic and Knuckles. They argued 24/7 but still trusted each other strongly, it's a bit complicated.

"Just five more minutes Sonic, please?" Tails pulled his puppy dog face, he knew Sonic couldn't say no.

"Fine. I guess we can't leave Eggman in here, which he isn't, to die, even though he isn't."

"Thanks Sonic!"

"Just be careful ok? I don't want you getting hurt, this whole place is a deathtrap."

"Relax Sonic, I'm 14 now, I can take care of myself."

"But still..."

"I'm not a kid anymore Sonic."

Knuckles chuckled slightly to himself. Sonic was so overprotective to Tails, he was glad it wasn't him. It would be like having an annoying mother telling you to look both ways before crossing the road every time you went out even though you're 30, or being that age and your dad feeding you by hand going 'open wide, here comes the choo choo train!' He knew it irked Tails a bit but deep down he doesn't mind it, it showed him that Sonic cared about him still like he did when they were younger. If Sonic was like that to Knuckles he would punch him straight in the face, luckily for him Tails wasn't the violent type.

"Sonic, don't. Move. Anything." The urgency in Tails' voice made Knuckles tense up. What was going on? He stood up slowly.

"Why?"

"I can hear it, you're close. Extremely close."

"Stop worrying, **_Mum_**." Sonic kicked over the nearest pile by his foot.

"NO SONIC!" Five gunshots rung out. Knuckles saw it all. He ran forward but was to late to catch them before they hit the ground.

"OH, HO, HO ,HO, HO..."

* * *

"Hey bro. It's me again. Can ya hear me?" No. The monitor beeped slowly like a clock. Beep, beep, beep.

"You need some sleep." Knuckles sounds different from usual. Calmer. Worn out. Beep, beep, beep.

"He's gonna wake up, I know he's gonna wake up. I have to be there." Beep, beep, beep.

"He's not going to any time soon. You should go home and rest, I'll keep watch." Beep, beep, beep.

"I'm not leaving. It's my fault he's like this, if only I'd left..." Beepbeepbeepbeepbeep. Medics rushed into the hospital ward.

"Please leave Mr Knuckles." A female Labrador in a nurses uniform turned to Knuckles and gestured to the door, she had kind brown eyes and her hair tied up in a tight bun on the top of her head, she looked in her late 30's. "You as well sir."

"I'm not leaving him!"

"The doctors will do their best for your friend but they need concentration."

"What's going on?!" The dog ignored his question and pressed on.

"Please sir, it would be best for you to leave."

"Come on." Knuckles dragged his struggling friend outside.

* * *

"Ya scared me for a moment there. Don't do that again. Please don't." They might as well been talking to a brick wall, their friend was still unconscious. "We're team Sonic for a reason ya know. Well, it's not an official name yet but it's better than Shadow's team Dark and Amy's team Pink, imagine being called team blue? That's just stupid." He reached out and squeezed his hand. "Remember when it was just the two of us? Before this whole team business? Those were the days. When ya get better we can go on some adventures, just me and you, the dynamic duo. Ya have that to look forward to now. Just... hang in there bud." The dog came in again and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Sir, please may I have a word with you?"

"Depends on what you have to say." He didn't bother looking up. She sighed deeply. This one was going to be a hard one to break the news to.

"The x-ray of your friend has just come in."

"Yeah..."

"We have some good news and some bad news."

"Hit me with it doc."

"Erm, I'm a nurse not a doctor."

"...same thing."

"No matter. Moving on, we've managed to get him in a stable condidtion, for now, but we'll need to operate on him later today, with your permission of course. We have already informed Knuckles and he agreed with the procedure."

"For what? What's wrong with my brother?"

What was wrong? He was laying on a hospital bed covered in bandages that protected gun shot wounds, hadn't woken up in almost 2 days and needed an operation, take your pick.

"Unfortunately, the bullets have damaged your friend's skeleton and we fear that the humerus of his left arm has already been infected where the bullet has split the bone near the shoulder blade, it has also landed considerable damage to the nerves so he would not have been able to use his arm even if it wasn't infected."

"Meaning..."

"I means that we'll need to resort to amputation to stop the infection from spreading, but the femur of his left leg is in much the same condition so that is also up for amputation like the arm." He just sat there in silence. "The other 2 bullets have hit his sternum and his rib cage area but haven't managed to penetrate the bone so we'll be able to take them out much more easily, we're still trying to locate the 5th because our equipment was damaged slightly in the last Eggman attack so it wouldn't pick up smaller fractures caused, we'll check for that during the operation. The good news is that It could have been much worse than this. Whoever shot him must have aimed badly or he would have hit more important areas than the arms and legs, yes he got the chest but scored much less damage. No vital organs were hurt either." She handed him a piece of paper showing the x-ray, "we still have not received the CT scan results but they will come later today. My apologies for the wait, the hospital is full to bursting at the moment so your friend's treatment has been delayed to this point but we will make sure that a slot in theatre is booked in for him later today, I fear that if the amputation isn't carried out soon that his condition will deteriorate further and faster than we will be able to cope with."

"Are ya sure that'll happen though?"

"I do not ask unless the procedure is completely necessary."

"What about prosthetic legs and stuff?"

"I'll speak to you about those after the operation has commenced, there are certain areas we're... unsure of, but materials are no longer an issue so the components are being built now. I assure you that our decision will be the best for him."

"Are ya sure it'll help him? Not just cripple him?"

"This option is much better for his future than letting the infection spread, so yes."

"Let me think on this."

"Take as long as you need sir."

"What do I do?" Half an hour later he was still there at the bedside, "I don't want ya to lose an arm and leg but I don't want ya to be worse off If i say no. Your whole life is riding on my shoulders." He started pacing the room. "And what will the others say? I know Knuckles already said yeah but the others don't know anything. Man, I wish someone was here, we wouldn't be in this mess if we were all together, none of this would have happened in the first place." Sinking into a battered old armchair by the window he put his head in his hands, stress was taking it's toll. Nothing was easy anymore. He had the responsibility to protect every single Mobian on the island, to sort Eggman's messes every time anything happened, before it was distributed evenly between all of his friends, but all of that had changed. Splitting was a bad idea after all. He thought he could take the pressure, but was mistaken, the more you hold, the harder it is to balance and the more likely something will drop.

They had done it almost a year ago. Each team that they had divided into were allocated a certain area in the largest threat to attack, thinking that the more places they covered the more people would be safe, but smaller groups seemed to make it much harder to hold back Eggman's forces. Him and his team had been forced to move to Angel island, Knuckles had placed it over land years ago so that he could visit easily which had deffinately come in handy, if he hadn't they would have been well and truly doomed. The island had come with its pros and cons, communication was hard, they maybe got an opportunity to call their frends once a month, unless they missed it, the signal on the floating island being unreliable, and going back down to land to get better reception was a bad idea since... lets just say no one was on their side anymore, but it provided protection from the hordes of Mobians and robots in the Eggman Empire. Hundreds and hundreds of them were after them and every other person who wasn't, the floating island was an escape. They called an evacuation for every remaining survivor to find sanctuary on Angel island with them, they couldn't leave theme to their fates after all, hiding from the 'inpure' Mobians as the more snooty ones referd them to.

From scratch they built a small hospital (where they were now), homes, a town hall, and shops (but no signal towers since they had the only communicators) naming their new village Knothole 'for old time's sake'. In fact, it was quite a strong functioning town for one so young, everone had jobs suiting their strengths and weaknesses, but he had known that he and his friends weren't going to be able to stay there. Wherever he went, Eggman would follow. So him and his teammates found an abandoned bunker in thickest part of the forrest left over from the Echidna war thousands of years ago and moved in, Knothole was concealed well so they could be confident that the public were safe from harm, Eggman wise. So far it had been 3 months. They missed their brief window of signal each time it opened, whether because of taking visits to Knothole and forgetting, provision runs, or just bad timing, so It had been a while since they had last heard from the others, he only hoped they hadn't been caught themselves. They had no idea this was happening for all he knew.

"I don't think I can do this. I need to take a run to clear my head, I'll be back in a bit l'ill bro." Jumping up, Sonic took one longing look at his brother. A part of him expected to see Tails to wake up and go 'Ok Sonic.' But of course the only movement he showed was the slow rise and fall of his chest, the oxygen mask on his muzzle misted up a bit from his breath and cleared again. He sounded slightly wheezy. Sonic hated seeing his brother looking so vulnerable, he looked as if you held his arm it would snap, so fragile in his bandages. It was painful to watch so he looked away, he still hadn't accepted it. Maybe after he got back it would all turn out to be his imagination?

* * *

"Hey l'ill bro, I'm..." Sonic trailed off as he entered the room. It had been 5 hours since he had left for a run, something had definitely happened during then because Tails' bed wasn't there. In its place stood the nurse again, that couldn't be good. Oh chaos, what if he... "He hasn't..." his voice shook slightly as he talked.

"No, Tails is still alive, but I have some distressing news. You may want to sit down sir." The dog lead him to the armchair from earlier, he sat down without protest. She carefully extracted a piece of paper from the bulky folder in he hands and gave it to him. She did know that he hadn't the foggyest of what any of these picture thingies meant?

"What's happened?" Sonic swallowed down a lump in his throat. Expecting the worst, he just wanted to get it over with.

"An alarming development of his condition had just come to light and we have had to rush him to theatre, it's about the CT scan. As you can see from the image," she pointed to an area of the picture she had given to Sonic where there were strange patterns crisscrossing across the corner, "something is not quite right here. At first we thought it was only a bug in the machinery, but then when we studied other patient's results taken after his but they had nothing like this. So we postponed all printing so we would get the results quicker and gave him another whilst you were gone." Sonic looked annoyed at this. "we had to sir." she explained. "If we hadn't doctors wouldn't be saving his life right at this moment." Sonic sat bolt upright.

"Saving his life?! Did this," he flapped the paper in her face, "tell you he's dying?!"

"Yes." Wow. That was nicely phrased wasn't it? Sonic slouched forwards running his fingers through his spines giving the impression that he had gone mad, the dark bags hanging under his eyes only added to the look. You know how he had wanted to just get it over with? Now he wished it had never started.

"It told us that something was amiss in his brain, not our equipment. Without that functioning correctly the body has little chance of survival, we had to start the operation immediately, without your knowing unfortunately. We apologize for this inconvenience but it was absolutely necessary to do this. At first we though the infection from the bones may have spread and somehow reached the brain somehow without killing the subject, but during the operation some news reached me and I'm sorry to say it's not good."

Oh chaos, Sonic thought, please don't be what I think it is. Please don't be what I think it is.

"It is an infection in all three areas, but not the regular type. It's-"

"He's got it, hasn't he."

"I'm so sorry sir." Sonic felt numb. "That's what we have classed it as, yes." Numb and sick. His head swam like he had just gone on a spinning teacup ride over and over again for an hour. It couldn't be. It just couldn't. "We had no idea it could infect any part of the body other than the brain but it seems we presumed wrongly. We've had to amputate earlier than we anticipated, surgeons are fitting the new limbs as we speak. It was the least we could do to give him the most high tech ones we could offer, meaning they have to connect them to the nerves in the leg and arm, he'll be able to feel what he touches this way. As for the brain..." she sighed loudly, "we've decided to replace-"

"Replace? Replace?!" Sonic interjected but she just gave another exasperated sigh and ploughed on.

"-the infected area, which I wish was much smaller, with cybernetic implants."

"Oh chaos."

"But it may take a while for the circuits to catch up with the activity of the brain so he may be in some sort if coma like state for a while longer. But I have to be honest with you, it has a chance of not catching up at all, so when he wakes up he may act a bit strange due to it not being able to get to the correct speed. Again this is the best we can do for your friend, the infection hasn't fully taken hold on the effected regions so we've worked out that if we remove the parts harboring it the spread will become impossible to reach the rest of the body. Those we could not save took days unattended to and that's why they've lost their free will, I'll do everything in my power to make sure Tails makes it."

"Chaos."

"I know this is a lot to take in sir." She placed a reassuring paw on his shoulder, it broke her heart every time she had to tell the bad news but she knew he must be hurting much more than she did.

"That's a bit of an understatment."

"Can I be of any assistance? Are there any questions you need to ask?" Her mother instinct was kicking in.

"5." Understandable.

"Fire away sir."

"How long will it be 'till he comes back? What will the others say? Where's Knuckles run off to?" The questions started to flow from his mouth like a fountain, not letting the poor woman any time to answer. "I haven't seen that echidna for hours! And what was Tails thinking? Why did he push me out of the way? Why didn't I move before he could? Why did I kick over the chair? What got the idea of shooting me inside Eggman's head? What put the idea of getting shot instead inside Tails'?!" The nurse put her second hand up to stop him, the other subconsciously tightened slightly on his shoulder.

"Wait, wait, wait. It was Eggman who shot him? You went back to the mainland and thought you'd just casually walk into his base and not get hurt?" Any formality she'd been trying to speak with was thrown out the window. "I know that you have beaten him before, but he's had all this time to muster his forces. It wasn't a good idea, you mess with fire and someone is bound to get burnt." Sonic pulled away from her, suddenly he didn't want her company anymore. Was it just because the want of silence or the growing guilt expanding in his gut like a balloon ready to burst? He twisted his body away to face the window, it was a beautiful day. Tails would have loved it.

"I should probably leave you to yourself for now." Oh the nurse was still there wasn't she. "Your brother should be back in a few hours, 3 at most."

"Yeah, thanks." Sonic's voice sounded hollow, he was shocked to say the least.

"If you need anything just ask for Mrs Asami Canis, I'll come as soon as you want me." She bowed slightly and hurried off to check on the patient next door. Sonic furrowed his brow in thought. Asami Canis. The name seemed familiar somehow but nothing came up so he shook the thought off and stared blankly out the window again. The sun burnt his eyes but he didn't bother to blink. He watched the steady trickle of pedestrians passing by, they didn't have to deal with this. Yes the world they had grown up in was in disarray and their family members that had been left behind was under the control of the new Eggman Empire, but they weren't expected to deal with it. Now even his team was splintered. The citizens continued with their day like normal. A pair of tabby cats sat down at a table outside a cafe and ordered coffee, an old monkey waffled on to an uncomfortable looking weasel about the time he used a vending machine, a 3 year old hedgehog sat with his mum eating ice cream, a badger with bunchies and a suit handed out flyers to couples crossing her path, a red echidna sprinted over the road towards the hospital... Wait.

5 minutes later a breathless Knuckles stood panting in front of an extremely confused Sonic, he looked awful. Like he'd just run a marathon without stopping once, sweat was running down his face in buckets. Sonic handed him a cup of water from the table and he gulped it down gladly like he hadn't drunk in weeks, sheesh. Bit dramatic much. Sonic thought, evidently, he wasn't in a very good mood.

"Where ya been?" Knuckles was a bit taken aback by the icy note in the usually cheery hedgehog's voice.

"Out. Idea. Sock. Check." He managed to pant out between breaths.

How far did he run to get this tired? "Where is 'out'?" Knuckles definitely wanted to come back with a snappy retort but thought better of it. He'd heard the news before Sonic had after all. "I've just been told my little brother has had his brain taken apart and you were 'out'?" There was a hint of calm and steely anger in his sentence.

"Look. I. Was. Trying. To. Help." Knuckles gulped down the rest of the water and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "Heard. About. The. Whole. Cybernetics. Slow. Thing. And. Remembered. This. Was. In. His. Sock." He pulled something from the cuff of his glove. The USB.

* * *

 _Man, my head feels like its been run over by a truck. What happened?_

"Chaos I hope this works."

 _Sonic? Sonic! I'm here!_

"Me to Sonic."

 _Knuckles? What's going on? Why can't I move?_

"Ya sure it had no bugs?"

 _Bugs? What are you talking about?_

"The techies didn't find any, I wouldn't have run all the way from their computer cave on the other side of the island if I wasn't sure it was safe."

 _I'm so confused. I'm scared you guys, please, I don't know what's going on. Why can't I talk to you? I can't move anything!_

"Here goes nothing."

 _What? I don't unders- **Foreign data detected.**_

"Now we wait."

 ** _Systems shutdown; unable to uphold semi consciousness._**

* * *

"Shhh, I think he's coming round."

 _Urgh, I don't think I am bro, I feel worse._

"Sonic. Just because he twitched his nose slightly it doesn't mean he's awake."

 _You've got that right, if I were awake It wouldn't be all black._

"He's almost there..."

 _I wouldn't say almost. I still can't even move my hand._

"Sonic, it's gonna take a while. Go get some sleep, I don't think I've seen you do it for a day."

 _Why hasn't he slept? Is anyone gonna say what happened?_

"No."

 _Come on Tails, patience. Just focus on trying to move._

"I'm not taking that as an answer. Go. Now."

 _Listen to him Sonic._

"But I-"

"No buts. You. Go. Now."

 _Calm down Knuckles, a moment ago you weren't at all angry, no need to fly off the hook._

"Fine. Wake me up if he does anything, anything. I mean it Knuckles."

 _That was surprisingly easy. Whoah. Chaos, I don't feel so good. **Systems failure; unable to uphold semi conscious state.**_

* * *

"Sir, do you know where Sonic has gone?"

 _Hu? I don't recognise that voice._

"I sent him to get some rest, haven't seen him for an hour."

 _I guess it's just Knuckles in here and that lady._

"I didn't quite get to tell him... certain information, he didn't look to well so I decided to leave it until later."

"You mean he doesn't know?"

 _About the what exactly?_

"No he doesn't. I have been planning on informing him but he doesn't seem available at the moment."

 _It's about me isn't it?_

"It's probably best to keep it to ourselves, it won't be a problem for much longer. I told Sonic I went to get something checked, but I also went and got this."

 _I'd kill to be able to see right now._

"That's perfect sir."

 _For what?!_

"We can't tell Sonic about this though."

"I promise to keep this confidential."

"Good, or someone's gonna find a fist in their face, both mine and his."

"There's no need to get violent sir."

"It's not me you should be worried about, you do not want to be there when Sonic's angry. I can take him any day, but a dark Sonic is not good."

 _Is this all because if me? AM I DEAD?! I don't wanna be dead! I have so much more to do! I still haven't sorted my wires!_

"I don't understand what you mean, I am not familiar with chaos lore."

 _Ok calm Tails, if you were dead you wouldn't be talking to yourself. Ok. Am I ok? I don't know!_

"Well you should be. Were you raised under a rock?"

 _Geez knuckles, give her a break. And seriously, you were raised **by** a rock._

"Whether I should or should not, I don't. Now if you excuse me I need to check on next door."

 _Wait. Should I be panicking about how I stopped panicking?_

"Bye then."

 _Ok, I'm freaking out again._

"I guess It's now or never."

 _No, Knuckles, whatever you're about to do I'm not ready._

"Now, where do I put this?"

 _No, stop, I'm scared._

"Here we go"

 _No, get off my arm. You're hurting me! Stop, please!_

"3, 2, 1"

 _Please, what are you- **Power overload, system shutdown. Unable to uphold semi conscious state**_ **.**

* * *

 _I feel horrible. Absolutely rubbish. Nothing makes sense. My brain is so jumbled. I don't know what's going on. How did I get here? Where is here? Chaos, my head hurts. I'm going to try to move again. Everything aches. At least I have feeling, that's a good sign, right? My body is so heavy. Is it normal to feel like you're made of lead? Can't be. Can I at least move a finger? Let's start small._

"Sonic. Sonic wake up! He moved!"

"Knux, stop pulling my leg, it's not funny."

"I'm not joking, he moved!"

 _Ok, now a fist, slowly now._

"Sonic! He did it again!"

"Knuckles, it's not funny!"

 _My foot feels cramped._

"Tails?! He moved his foot! He's awake!"

"I said stop, Knuckles!"

"SoNIc?" _Woah, my voice sounds weird. Oh, maybe because of the fact I'm still wearing an oxygen mask. Should probably take It off now._

"T-Tails? TAILS?!"

"YeAh." _Funny, it didn't make much difference._

"Told you I wasn't messing."

 _They've switched a light on, after who knows how long with my eyes closed it stings. I wish they would turn it off. I can't lift my arm high enough to reach it, its on my left and that whole side seems unresponsive. Strange, the wrinkly hospital shirt I'm wearing is slick with sweat on my right and freezing cold on my left. There's something wrong. Very wrong._

"WHaT haPpeNEd?" _My_ voice; _add it to the list of malfunctioning features. Did I just say malfunctioning?_ "I dOn'T UndErSTanD." _It seems to get a bit better the more you speak though, but it still sounds to hollow to be mine._ "WhERe aM I?" _That sounded a bit dumb, I know I'm in a hospital. A 'what am I doing here' would have been a better question to ask._

"You're in a hospital, 'lill bro. How ya feeling?"

 _Thank you Sonic for talking so quietly, my ears were ringing. They're not used to fully hearing noises yet. He's come over and is holding my hand, thank chaos his head is so big, he's blocking out the direct glare of the lamp._ "LIke I fElL ofF a BuiLDinG, iNtO A RoaD." _That's not an exaggeration._ "HoW loNg hAvE I beeN OuT?"

"4 days, 22 hours, 37 minutes and 3.4 seconds."

 _Has Knuckles been timing? That's not weird in the slightest. Next to me is a digital clock, it reads 22:37, I guess he was right._ "WhaT hAppeNeD?"

"Eggman."

"Oh." _that's all the explanation I need. It's triggered something in my memory, but its fuzzy. Corridors. Lots and lots of corridors. An explosion. A tank? And, 5 gunshots. I'm not sure what made me push him out of the way, a primitive instict to protect your pack possibly or maybe a pure adrenaline rush, but either way it happened and I'm paying the consequences. What they all are exactly I still need to work out. I think it has something to do with my left though, cold and unresponsive sets off some immediate alarm bells in my head._

"Sonic, let go, you're gonna start hurting him soon if you hold on that tight."

 _Now that you mention it, my hand is throbbing a bit_. "YOu'rE CuttINg OfF mY CIrcUlATiOn." _I wish my voice would just go back to normal, it's annoying me now._

"Oh, sorry bro. I'm just happy you're ok bud!"

 _I can feel the blood flowing back into my hand, much better._ "It'S oK." _My pillow feels so nice and soft on my head, I wish I could just melt into it. I've only just noticed the wires and instruments sticking into me, they're pinching into my skin and it's uncomfortable, so unlike my pillow._

"Bud, ya ok? Ya drifting off a bit there."

 _Everything's just so much. I just wanna sleep for a bit, just five more minutes._

"Tails?"

 ** _Systems shut down._**

* * *

 _You know when you need the toilet, like really need the loo, and you don't want to get out if bed but you really need to go. Well, that's how I feel. I'm so warm and comfortable in my bed, but desperate. There's a door just across the room leading to the bathroom, so close, but I don't wanna. But I do wanna. But I don't wanna. Man, I sound like a 6 year old. Come on Tails, what's gotten into you? Act your age. I haven't tried getting out yet so now is a good a time as any, I shouldn't wake up Sonic and Knuckles, they look so tired, I've gotta crack this on my own. Here goes. It's so cold. Why's it so cold? You would have thought that the combined heat radiating from all three of us would be enough to warm it up a bit, it's not even a very large room- wait. Is that?..._ "Why is my leg- AAAAAGGGHHHH! WHERE'S MY ARM GONE?!" _NO! I... I... NO... NO. NO!_

"Tails!"

"WHERE? I... MY? MY?!"

"Tails breathe!"

"WHAT HAPPENED AT THE LAIR?!"

"BREATHE!"

"WHAT HAPPENED?!" _I've just gone straight from not breathing at all to hyperventilating. If I thought I was panicking before, I just proved myself wrong. FOR CHAOS' SAKE, I AM HALF ROBOT! I AM HALF ROBOT?!_

"Copy my breaths, in, and out."

 _Trying to copy Sonic's breaths is harder than it looks, I can't slow down, my mind is a blur of confused thoughts and strange out of place memories all mixed up in a strange ball of nerves, what else do I not know? Why did they not tell me before? WHY LEAVE SOMETHING AS IMPORTANT AS THIS OUT?!_

"Look at me Tails."

 _I feel so betrayed._

"Look at me."

 _I don't want to. I can't. I can't take my eyes off them, my..._

"TAILS."

 _He's forced my head up because refused, his eyes are so green and piercing but have a slight bloodshot quality to them, has he been crying? Sonic, crying? Oh wait, I know why, BECAUSE I GOT MY ARM AND LEG AMPUTATED AND WHO KNOWS WHAT ELSE WENT WRONG?!_

"Tails, listen to me. This only happened because it had to, it won't change anything."

"IT WONT CHANGE ANYTHING? IT WONT CHANGE ANYTHING?! I AM HALF ROBOT AND YOU'RE SAYING IT WONT CHANGE ANYTHING? NOTHING BUT MY ENTIRE LIFE?!"

"Tails calm down."

 _Great, Knuckles has joined the conversation, 'calm down' real helpful. **YOU** GET TURNED INTO A CYBORG WOTHOUT KNOWING AND THEN **YOU** TRY AND 'CALM DOWN'. "_WHAT ELSE DID YOU NOT TELL ME?"

"Tails, we didn't get the chance to, you-"

"Sonic, I'm scared, what's wrong with me?" _I can feel the tears building up in my eyes, that's the thing with me, I can't stay mad for very long instead I become sad and or afraid. Just another one of my flaws, you don't see Knuckles or Sonic doing that. All that's going through my head is that burning question, every other need or observation has been pushed aside, this is more important to me right now._

 _"_ There was- there-"

 _Even Sonic can't tell it to me straight, that not a good sign, not good at all._

"Your arm and leg aren't the only robotic things in you Tails, part of your brain was... Taken out."

 _Leave it to Knuckles_. "..."

"Bud?"

"..."

"This must be a lot, I'm sorry 'lill bro."

 _This can't be real, please just be a nightmare. I just pinched myself but I felt nothing, absolutely nothing._

"Tails, say something."

 _What am I supposed to say, Knuckles? At would only come out as a confused blabble, even if my voice has come back to what I expect to be as normal as it's gonna get. No words could describe how I'm feeling._

"Knuckles leave it, he needs some time to think right now."

 _I need a week to think, a month would be ideal. All of this couldn't have come at a worse time, everything is just so much to bare._

"Knuckles we should go back to sleep."

 _I just want to shut it all down, I don't want to think about it, I don't want it to be real_.

"It'll work out Tails, we'll be ok."

"I hope." _**-Systems shutdown.**_

* * *

 **So, there we have it. Part 2 complete! (mad dance party music playing in the background) This chapter, and this whole story really, is quite dramatic as you can tell. I apologise if some people seem out of character at points, but they have reasons, the exception could be Chris. When he would definitely act different since he's more mature now I guess, it's partly because I find it a bit hard to write things for him, if anyone could give me some tips I would love them forever! Not in the Amy way though, I'm not that creepy.**

 **If you like my story, please review or let me know of your existence! Constructive criticism is welcome as long as you're not completely "die, I hate this story!" about it, this is only my first story and I want to improve as much as I possibly can. If I have any punctuation or spelling mistakes please point them out to me, I wrote this chapter out on my phone and sometimes I press the wrong letter or it autocorrects it to the wrong word, but mainly it's because I absolutely suck at spelling. I have absolutely no idea when the next chapter will be, I hope though that I haven't given to much away so that I keep your brains working until I update! ;P**


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